pipe laying and bedding material

[martinaskey]

My local geology is granite with clay soil in Culm grass.
Most if not all utility companies seem to avoid using granulates for bedding material, regardless of the type of services installed. My understanding is that rigid or flexible pipes need stable bedding and the liquid carrying pipes need granulates to avoid joints breaking. Also the use of granulates aids the avoidance of tree rooting ingress at joints, therby prevent blockages.
It has been observed even perforated drainage pipes are laid without granulate bedding material. Surely this is foolhardy and detracts from the objective?

[84-1093879891]

The methodology used by the utility companies and their appointed contractors for laying their cables, pipes and ducts does not come under the remit of any of the standards used for drainage, such as Sewers for Adoption 4th ed or B.Regs:PartH. In a nutshell, they are a law unto themselves.

I know some sectional pipes/ducts and the larger installations normally rely on a bedding layer, but small "service pipes" and armoured cables are just buried in whatever happens to be the local terrain. Responsibility for these services mostly lies with the utility companies themselves (the exception being where they enter private property), so any damage is down to them.

With perforated drainage pipes, some folk choose to lay them in "as-dug" material. It's not something we recommend, unless the as-dug material happens to be a gravel or similar material, but then, no-one inspects land drains, do they? :(