This short interview with Steve Slusarenko, the Director of the SUMDEx initiative, is intended to give an update on the SUMDEx Team’s progress and to give readers an understanding of when the project will be ready to support the damage prevention community.
Originally called the Canadian Underground Infrastructure Register (CUIR) project initiative in the last update of March 2023, we have now changed the name to better reflect the North American scope of our project since joining forces with the Gopher State One Call Underground Utility Mapping Team (aka MN811). MN811 has built their CGA award-winning FuzionView software solution that is the conflation engine that assembles a comprehensive map of existing infrastructure within the bounded area of a one call ticket based on the submissions from each of the affected utility owners. The initiative will reduce the risk and cost associated with working on, or near, buried infrastructure by providing better information to excavators and other stakeholders.
Q: What is the focus now and how has it changed since the March 2023 update?
A: The focus on saving lives by providing a secure process that allows utility owners to share asset location information with requestors remains the same. To achieve this we continue to expand our network of people that we know to raise awareness and garner more support for what we are doing from a broader representation of the stakeholder community. At the same time, we are engaging with other teams working on similar initiatives to collaborate with them, learn from each other, and harmonize the end result.
Q: How has the committee changed and developed since June?
A: We now count over 90 individual contributors providing their time, energy and expertise at no cost to the project. They represent the interests of over 50 organizations that are involved in damage prevention at some level.
Q: What types of organizations have joined the efforts of SUMDEx?
A: In Canada we have Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments represented and we have all three levels of government represented in the US side as well. In addition we have One Call Centers, engineering firms, surveyor, locate service providers, contractors, excavators, and several universities.
Q: Have there been any improvements, breakthroughs, or challenges in recent months?
A: Barb Cederberg from MN811 and her team are now testing the first release of FuzionView and when they are completed their testing, they will start preparations to make it available to the user community. It should be noted that the MN 811 is making the software available to the damage prevention community at no cost.
Q: What else is the SUMDEx team working on?
A: We are looking into the data exchange formats and support for BIM initiatives and working on informational materials and attending damage prevention symposiums to raise awareness and garner support.
Q: How are similar initiatives doing in other countries?
A: To my knowledge, the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) project in the UK has gone live in North East England, Wales, and London and is slated to be fully deployed in all regions in 2025.
Here is an article published by the US Common Ground Alliance on the Gopher State One Call Underground Mapping Project:
Q: What opportunities are on the horizon for SUMDEx?
A: There is an opportunity for State and Provincial Governments to use the SUMDEx system to register the locations and manage maps of abandoned oil wells and gathering lines or other infrastructure where the ownership is unknown.
Another area that may be of interest would be related to Disaster Recovery and Emergency Response where the locations of critical infrastructure elements can be managed via a central authority.
Q: How will SUMDEx be participating in GeoIgnite coming up in May?
A: We have four or five of our team members presenting at the conference and we will likely have more of our team attending.
To hear more about SUMDEx and other relevant topics, be sure to attend GeoIgnite in Ottawa, May 13-15, 2024 and the SUMSF online forum June 25-26, 2024
Subscribe