A Tier 1 contractor delivering a $200 million plus infrastructure package has an in-house engineering team, a dedicated safety function, and the standing relationships to get a full subsurface investigation scoped without a second thought. A Tier 2 firm running a $50–80 million project, or a Tier 3 civil project, usually has none of that in-house — and carries exactly the same underground-strike liability the moment a machine goes in the ground.
That gap between exposure and resourcing is the real story behind a lot of underground service incidents, and it’s worth naming directly instead of talking around it.
What the industry’s own data actually shows
Australia records more than 15,000 underground service strikes a year, according to BYDA (formerly DBYD)’s own 2026 industry research — telecommunications, water, gas, and electricity assets, hit despite a system that processes over 2.7 million plan requests annually and counts more than 850 asset owners and 700,000 registered users. The system being well-used isn’t the same as the system preventing strikes, and the same research is direct about why: “cost pressures can foster a belief among subcontractors of ‘getting the job done’ outweighing pre-dig locating.”
That’s not a comment on any one company. It’s a description of an incentive structure — and it lands hardest on the businesses with the least room to absorb a bad outcome. The same BYDA research quotes a Victorian government estimate of an 8–12% cost blow-out on a project once a strike happens, adding: “They have normalised the cost of strikes.” An 8–12% blow-out is a very different event for a Tier 1 balance sheet than it is for a Tier 2 or Tier 3 business running on tighter margins with less contingency built in.
The specific difficulty, named plainly
If you’re running a Tier 2 or Tier 3 business, the fear isn’t usually “we don’t care about underground services.” It’s a mix of more practical problems:
No one in-house whose job it is to own this. A Tier 1 firm has an engineer or a dedicated safety resource whose role includes interpreting utility data. On a leaner team, that job often lands on whoever’s running the site that week, on top of everything else they’re already doing.
The information you get isn’t simple to use even when you ask for it. The same BYDA research notes that a standard referral response “can be up to 50–60 pages. A lot to digest” — and that the data is “only as good as what the asset owner has put in.” Getting the PDF is the easy part. Knowing what it actually tells you, and what it doesn’t, is where a lean team without a dedicated resource genuinely struggles.
Time and cost pressure push toward shortcuts, and everyone knows it. BYDA’s own research is blunt about this: “For contractors under time pressure, cost pressure — just take the risk.” That’s not a hypothetical scenario. It’s the documented, named reason strikes keep happening even with good information technically available.
A strike hits a smaller business harder, not just as much. The direct repair cost is often the least of it — it’s the program delay, the client relationship, the possible WHS investigation, and for a Tier 2 or Tier 3 business, an owner or site manager who may be personally exposed under duty-of-care obligations without a large legal or compliance team standing behind them.
What actually helps, without needing a Tier 1 in-house team
None of the above means the answer is “hire an engineer” or “buy an enterprise GIS platform” — that’s not realistic for most Tier 2 and Tier 3 businesses, and it’s not what actually closes the gap. What does help:
Treat a subsurface investigation as a scoped, proportionate decision — not an all-or-nothing one. Under AS 5488.1:2022’s Quality Level framework, the right level of investigation depends on what’s actually at stake on a given site, not a blanket policy of “always do the minimum” or “always do the maximum.” A lean team doesn’t need in-house expertise to make that call well — it needs a partner who can explain the options in plain terms and scope to the actual risk, not upsell to the biggest package or leave the decision entirely on the site manager’s plate.
Outsource the interpretation, not just the fieldwork. The 50–60 page referral pack problem above is exactly where an experienced locating partner earns their keep — not just running the GPR or EM equipment, but actually telling you what the records mean for your specific dig, in language that doesn’t require a background in utility engineering to act on.
Build the cost of a proper investigation into the program from the start, not as a reaction to time pressure. The businesses BYDA’s research describes taking the risk aren’t usually acting recklessly — they’re reacting to a schedule that didn’t account for locating time in the first place. That’s a planning fix, not a resourcing fix, and it’s within reach for a business of any size.
You don’t need a Tier 1 balance sheet to make this decision well. You need the right information, explained plainly, at the point you’re actually making the call — which is precisely the gap a locating and investigation partner is there to close.
Need a locate or investigation scoped to the size of your project, not a one-size-fits-all package? Contact the HCS team before you break ground.
