Between the Poles

SUMSF 2023 Panel: Next Steps in the Evolution of Damage Prevention

For the May 16, 2023, SUMSF 2023 livestream panel discussion, “Next Steps in the Evolution of Damage Prevention,” Steve Slusarenko, Director of CUIR, Gopher State One Call ‘s Chief of Operations Officer, Barb Cederberg, Peter Lamb, Professional Land Surveyor/Deputy Chief Surveyor at Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO), and Lawrence Arcand, President at 4Sight Utility Engineers, joined their knowledge and expertise together to inspire and inform participants. Slusarenko acted as moderator for this discussion.

Cederberg responded to the first question by remembering how when she realized damages were not going down in five years, she wondered, “What can we do differently?” and “What action can we take to improve the industry?” She then became involved in two projects, the Minnesota Utility Mapping Project and GPS locating device project, both were successful. She noted both successes and failures. Cederberg noted the importance of getting underground utilities mapped. 

Arcand responded next, saying he felt the key was to figure out what people want to do with the data. There are two different fields who could use this information. The first field is the locate and damage prevention field, and the second field is the subsurface utility engineering side. Both fields have similar requirements and use similar data, but have different intentions. He looked forward to discussing how the requirements could be achieved and to come up with something to be proud of. 

Lamb entered the discussion and said he found it strange that land surveyors were doing a great job of keeping track of the “invisible lines” that marked boundaries, but not keeping track of the invisible lines under the ground that could do a lot of damage. He noted the difficulties that could arise when the underground information was not available. When he began his work with the MTO, he was assigned reviewing post-construction reports. The reports highlighted what went well, and not so well, with a pattern of utilities uncovered at construction causing issues and delays.  

Watch and listen to the whole panel discussion to find out more.

SUMSF 2023: CUIR Presents the Minnesota Utilities Mapping Project

Steve Slusarenko, Director of CUIR (Canadian Underground Infrastructure Register) and Bob Basques, Technical Director of SharedGeo, presented the “Case for Canadian Underground Infrastructure Register” during their May 16, 2023,  SUMSF 2023 livestream presentation called, “CUIR Presents the Minnesota Utilities Mapping Project.”

Slusarenko opened the presentation to introduce the initiative and discuss the development of a system that will allow utility owners to share information regarding the location of their facilities with those who need the information. He said although the state and provincial State One Calls have been instrumental in supporting today’s damage prevention capabilities, they know there is still more to be done. This need is the subject of the presentation. 

The CUIR initiative was created in the autumn of 2021, as a Canadian initiative to bring awareness and reduce the risk and cost associated with working on and near buried infrastructure. The CUIR team is now made up of over 80 passionate individuals who aim to take the process of  “One Call Damage Prevention” to another level. 

In 2021, the Canadian Common Ground Alliance found underground infrastructure damage in Canada was about 1 billion Cdn. In October 2021, The Common Ground Alliance listed a GIS-based mapping system as an opportunity to slow the damage rate and said the following would happen if this system was put into place: improved locating efficiency, increased excavator safety, cost savings and reduced risks. 

Basques then provided a demonstration of a working prototype, developed by Gopher State One Call. He introduced the “Minnesota Utilities Mapping Project,” and FuzionView (the product that will come out of this project). He also discussed a few case studies as well as the importance of the Minnesota Utilities Mapping Project. Basques discussed how FuzionView worked and its benefits. 

A question and answer session followed the presentation.  Watch the video above to find out more.

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Deep Learning-Based Underground Digital Twins: Scan to BIM at SUMSF 2023

Bringing information from around the world, Dr. Vincent Fan, Lidarist Company Limited, Chief Technical Officer, Leo Kwan, Lidarist Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Wai Yeung Yan, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Assistant Professor, joined together at SUMSF 2023 to present a livestream on May 16, 2023 called, “Deep learning based underground digital twins: Scan to BIM.”

Dr. Yan began the presentation by introducing some recent work in Hong Kong, and discussing AI solutions regarding converting 3D into BIM models for underground scenarios. He spoke about the challenges of limited time and accessing records of underground utilities. Dr. Yan discussed the differences between 2D UU maps and 3D Point Clouds.

Leo Kwan was the next to speak, and discussed the approach of “hardware over software” taken by Lidarist. There is over 7000 km of underground pipework in Hong Kong and efficient data extraction software is still needed. He discussed the deep neural network, classification of object types and semantic segmentation. Kwan spoke about the scanning to BIM process and deep learning-based semantic segmentation processes.

Data acquisition was the next topic of discussion, and Lidar plays an important role. Laser scanning, placement of control points, setups, control targets, coordinate extraction and 3D point clouds were explained and demonstrated.  

A scan to BIM workflow was demonstrated as well. In the future, to cope with the “ever-changing” data, Lidarist’s solution will allow quick response and upgradable MN models. It is designed to be flexible and adaptable. 

A question and answer session followed the presentation.  Watch the whole presentation to find out more.