The Utility Strike Avoidance Group (USAG) has released its 2019 report on underground utility damage in the U.K. The analysis found that inadequate assessment of planned excavations in the pre-construction phase has grown significantly as a cause of underground utility damage. In addition improving the accuracy of asset record data remains a focus area for network owners.
The U.K. has not had access to good statistics on underground utility strikes similar to the Common Ground Alliance in North America. Since 2013 the Utility Strike Avoidance Group (USAG) has begun collecting statistics on underground utility damage. USAG currently operates on a voluntary basis with no direct funding other than the support offered by member organizations.
There are over 12,000 construction projects taking place every day across the UK. England does not have legislation mandating a one-call centre as just about every state and province in North America does. This puts the onus on excavators to track down and contact utilities and others who may have infrastructure in the area of the planned excavation. To fill the gap a private company LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD) a service similar to a North American one-call centre. LSBUD is supported by its members which include all fuel transmission companies, 60-70% of electric power network operators, and some water and telecom operators in England. The LSBUD service processes over 2.5 million inquiries per annum.
But there are no reliable statistics on underground utility strikes comparable to those collected in North America by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) which has been collecting voluntarily submitted statistics on underground utility damage since 2003. An initiative with similar goals to the CGA in the UK is the the Utility Strike Avoidance Group (USAG) which began collecting information about underground utility strikes during construction in 2013.
USAG has just released its 2019 Utility Strike Damages Report which summarizes the key findings of analyzing 2500 utility strikes across the UK during 2019 based on responses from 44 USAG Members.
Some of the interesting trends indicated by the data;
- Inadequate assessment of works and associated risks, which has been the highest cause since 2017, has grown significantly.
- Improving asset record data would help rectify two of the top four causes of utility damage so this remains an important area for asset owners to focus on.
- Shallow infrastructure buried under sidewalks such as low voltage power cables including street lighting, water assets and telecom has consistently been at the top of utility damages. Recently there has been a significant spike in telecom strikes in the sidewalk probably the result of significant buildout of the fiber network using new very shallow techniques such as micro-trenching.
- The date shows that planned works have the lowest proportion high-risk strikes. The risk of high risk strikes increases in unplanned excavation and is highest in emergency works.
The results of the analysis suggested several general industry recommendations.
- Improve the information available about the proposed excavation.
- Identify network operators and compile all utility record plans
- During the pre-construction phase conduct high quality PAS128 level surveys to locate assets, analogous to a North American subsurface utility engineering (SUE) survey
- Be prepared for inaccuracies in the utility records provided by network owners.
- Identify network operators and compile all utility record plans
- Network owners must strive to raise the quality of their records.
- Ensure that only competent and authorized people are involved in locating underground infrastructure and in conducting excavation. In the UK there are National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) relevant to underground asset management. The lack of certifications for those locating underground infrastructure is a major deficiency of North American practice.
- At a minimum follow the guide HSG47 Avoiding danger from underground services published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which provides detailed guidance for all those involved in commissioning, planning, managing and carrying out work on or near underground services.
- Inform network owners when their assets are not in the location shown on their plans. The recent PAS256 standard provides a standard form for reporting discrepancies.This is a critcally important recommendation but one that I suspect is rarely followed because of the extra (unpaid) work required by the excavator.
It is interesting to note the parallels between the USAG report and the recent white paper on the locate industry from the CGA. The CGA white paper identified better delineation of the proposed excavation site and improving utility records as top priorities for improving reliability and efficiency of underground locates.
Subscribe
Comments