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Coloured printed tape laid above a buried cable or pipe as a last warning.
Also known as: Cable warning tape, Marker tape, Detectable warning tape
Warning tape is a coloured plastic strip laid in a trench above a buried service and below the surface, printed with a repeated legend naming what is beneath it. It is designed to be found by the thing that would otherwise damage the service: a spade or a bucket meets the tape before it meets the cable. Some tapes carry a metal foil core so that they can also be detected from the surface, which turns a passive warning into something a locate survey can find.
Is placed to be found by the tool that would otherwise cause the damage: laid above the service and below the surface, so a spade or a bucket reaches it first.
Contexts: Technical drawing, Public information
Carries a printed legend naming the service and, in the detectable form, a metal foil core so the tape itself can be traced from the surface — which turns a passive warning into something a survey can locate.
Contexts: Technical drawing, Public information
Is not a guarantee of depth or of position. Ground is disturbed, services are re-laid and tape is displaced, so finding tape means a service is probably below and finding none means nothing at all.
Contexts: Technical drawing, Public information
A long narrow strip of coloured plastic printed with a repeating line of capital letters along its length.
Both identify a buried service by colour.