Between the Poles

Canadian Underground Forum begins tomorrow

You can see the program for April 29 and 30 and register here.

Speaker lineup

One of the early innovators in applying LiDAR to mapping underground pipelines, Joseph Hlady, President at Lux Modus in Calgary, Alberta will explain n his keynote the benefits that his technology has brought to the oil and gas pipeline industry. Another early innovator is Otto Ballintijn, CEO of Reduct who has developed inertial or gyro technology for mapping underground pipe networks. In his keynote he will explain the evolution of the technology including the concept, operational method, and data output of gyro mapping technology. A number of jurisdictions around the world are developing digital twins at the urban, regional and even national level. Alex Shalash of UEVO will discuss creating a city subsurface infrastructure map which unifies fragmented information and produces an intelligent digital twin. Danny Petrecca of Locusview, an early leader in capturing and managing underground data in the gas industry, will review why as-builting still remains paper-based and discuss a digital construction solution that stitches together existing technologies to create the reliable digital twin that utilities need in the age of the smart grid.

Our chief guest speaker is Jim Anspach, Chair of the ASCE 38 standards group, who will bring us up to date on the imminent 38-21 utility as-built standard. Carsten Roensdorf and Neil Brammall will introduce the Open Geospatial Consortium's work in progress, the MUDDI standard for exchanging location data about underground infrastructure. Lawrence Arcand, who has led Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) investigations on a national level since 2003, will provide an overview of the Canadian standard CSA S250:20 Mapping of underground utility infrastructure.

Rob Martindale, Program Manager - Utilities/Railroads at the Colorado Department of Transportation, will present an overview on how a mix of legislation and regulation has enabled Colorado to revolutionize the capture and sharing of accurate underground utility location data. Page Tucker, President & CEO at ProStar which implemented the mobile and cloud solution adopted by the Colorado DoT will speak about how the partnership between Colorado DoT and Prostar made this successful. One of the remarkable new technologies applied to mapping underground infrastructure was developed by 4M-Analytics. Harel Dan, Head of GIS and Remote Sensing, and Ophir Wainer, Director of North America Business Development, will explain how 4M-Analytics uses satellite and aerial imagery to map underground infrastructure. Leica Geosystems' IDS Georadar was one of the early innovators in ground penetrating radar. Simon Pedley, Detection Ambassador at Leica Geosystems will talk about some of the innovations in hardware and software that Leica Geosystems has developed in the last couple of years.

Government has a crucial role to play in locating and mapping underground infrastructure. Gord Reynolds and Alon Gat will discuss how Infrastructure Ontario partnered with Metrolinx and the Ministry of Transportation to establish the Utility Coordination Program (UCP), a new initiative which oversees the development of utility relocation standards and the supporting process to improve the location, treatment and relocation of utility infrastructure. Gordon McElravy, of buildingSMART Canada, will discuss buildingSMART's efforts in implementing the Municipal Infrastructure Council Program to encourage building information model (BIM) initiatives at the municipal level. Capping the first day of CUF Prashant Shukle, who was responsible for mapping and earth observation in the Canadian government for many years, will moderate a panel discussion on the role of government in underground infrastructure with panelists from the State of Colorado, the U.K. Government's Geospatial Commission, Public Services and Procurement Canada, and Infrastructure Ontario.

Priorities for the underground locate industry: white-lining and better utility maps

According to statistics compiled by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) the process by which underground utilities are located (detected and marked) are responsible for 28% of incidents of damage to underground infrastructure during excavation. To better understand locate issues the CGA conducted a survey of 402 locate professionals and the results have been released in a CGA White Paper.  Respondents were asked to identify the top challenges facing the locate industry and the most effective measures to improve the timeliness and accuracy of underground utility locates.  White-lining (marking the ground to delineate the location of proposed excavations) and better facility maps received nearly unanimous agreement as top strategies for improving efficiency and quality of locates.

According to the latest CGA DIRT Report, damages to buried infrastructure continue to increase for the fifth consecutive year. Last year the proportion of damages attributed to locate issues rose to its highest level, accounting for 28% of all damages. The survey of the locate industry conducted by the CGA included contract locate technicians, utility company locate technicians, private locate technicians and others. The objective was to to measure awareness and adherence to safe digging practices, factors motivating accurate and timely locates, and challenges facing the industry. The results have been released in a CGA White paper: Insights into Improving the Delivery of Accurate, On-Time Locates.

Top measures to improve locates: White-lining and improved facility maps

The survey found overwhelming agreement among all locating stakeholders that white-lining and updated facility maps would be effective measures to improve the accuracy and timeliness of underground utility locates. Uncertainty about precise area of a proposed excavation was reported by respondents as the top barrier to accurate and on-time locates.  Making white-lining mandatory prior to contacting one call was identified as an effective measure to address this issue. Furthermore respondents identified increased communication between themselves and excavators at the job site level as another key measure to reduce damages;

With respect to the reliability of utility records, respondents reported that they are often out of date, incomplete and inaccurate and are an important contributing factor in making utility locates difficult and slow. This is a well known problem and improving the reliability of maps of underground utilities has become a priority in several jurisdictions including Colorado and Montana.

Maintaining a trained workforce

Another area of locating that was identified as an important challenge by respondents were workforce issues, especially retention and training.  Heavy workloads, low wages, and low appreciation for the profession were identified as contributing factors making it difficult to retain technicians. It was suggested that raising the profile of locating as a career would help improve perceptions of the profession. It was suggested that if community colleges, trade schools and high school technical programs offered locating certifications, this would could help attract and build a committed workforce.

Respondents suggested that improving the frequency of ongoing technician training would give technicians more experience and raise their commitment to the profession. The survey asked respondents how often in their organization they were provided ongoing training in locate technologies and business processes.  While 93% of technicians reported receiving training prior to going in the field, 94% said that more training would improve the accuracy and timeliness of locates. 62% reported ongoing training sessions at least once a year, but nearly a third reported no ongoing training sessions at all or occurring less than once a year.

Should underground infrastructure location data be included in digital twins ?

There are fundamental differences between above- and below-ground data which may limit the usefulness of underground data in digital twins.  For location data about the underground there are often data quality issues, legal restrictions on sharing privately held data, and potential liabilities that can place limits on how this data can be used. 

At the GEOBIM 2020 conference many of the presentations discussed developing digital twins of cities (Rotterdam, Helsinki, Pilsen, Athens), regions (Flanders), and even nations (Estonia, Singapore, UK).  Many cities have 3D models of their above-ground infrastructure including buildings, transportation networks, parks, and other infrastructure typically captured in 2D or 3D imagery from overflights or in 2D GIS maps. But underground infrastructure is often neglected, even though it is recognized that water and wastewater, energy (gas, electric power, and district heating),  and communications (fibre and copper) networks provide the life blood of the city.

It may be simply out-of-sight out-of-mind, but there is also a fundamental difference in what jurisidictions are able to do with representations of above and below ground infrastructure. Above ground, whatever can be photographed or scanned in the public space; from the street, from an airplane or drone, or from a satellite, in 2D or 3D, is generally unrestricted in application.  It is necessary to remove recognizable people and vehicles for privacy reasons and there may be national security restrictions, but in general this data can be used without restruction to create an open, publicly available digital model or digital twin.  The accuracy of the above-ground data in digital twins is generally high - for digitally scanned data accuracy even reaches the mm level.  And because this is open data, provided "as is", liability does not appear to have become an issue.

Underground the situation is different.  First of all, privately owned property is generally off limits. For example, pipes and cables running on private property and connecting homes and business to the municipal water, gas, power, and telecom services are normally missing in digital city models. Secondly, in most jurisdictions some or all of the utility and telecom infrastructure in the public right-of-way is privately owned.  There is a range in how much of the infrastructure in the public right-of-way is publicly owned and how much is private.  Many cities own water and sewer services and this data is often open and publicly accessible. But electric power, gas, and telecom are typically privately owned.  Private ownership, especially in the case of a competitive market such as telecom, imposes a fundamental restriction on public access to this data in the context of an open digital twin. 

For example, the City of Rotterdam is proud that its digital twin is open and accessible to the public and that it includes above and below ground infrastructure.  But, as Roland van der Heijden explained at GEOBIM, while about 2/3 of the underground utility data is open and accessible, there are restrictions on the other 1/3 because these represent privately owned facilities. 

Helsinki is one of the early adopters of the digital twin concept and actually has two models, one derived from imagery and intended for visualization applications.  The other is a semantic digital twin based on the CityGML data model which has extensions for utilities.  In his GEOBIM talk Jarmo Suomisto made it clear that the city has no plans to include location data about underground infrastructure. Jarmo gave several reasons for this decision all of which are important issues that in general apply in any municipal, regional or national jurisdiction. In Helsinki location data for underground utilities is owned and maintained by private utility and telecom owners.  Access to this data requires a data sharing agreement between the city and the network operators.  Furthermore, there are questions about whether the quality of the utility location data (completeness, accuracy and currency) is up the city's standard for its digital twin. Finally, there is the major issue of liabilities.  Who is responsible if someone, say a construction contractor, uses this data and hits an underground utility, the city, the network operator or the contractor ?

In Estonia, the situation is different. National legislation requires that all utility network owners with infrastructure in the public right of way or under land publicly owned provide their data to the national registry. The legislation does not apply to small private owners (private houses on private land). Furthermore, when changes are made to the network, either installing new infrastructure or renovating old infrastructure, the data provided to the national registry needs to be refreshed.  Even more interesting, when during excavation it is discovered that the location of network infrastructure is incorrect, it is required that the registry be updated with the corrected information.

Slovenia has a process with similarities to the Estonian system.  Network operators are required to submit location data for underground infrastructure to the Geodetic Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS) which maintains open, publicly accessible databases of underground utility and telecom infrastructure, parcel files and other data.  In the case of telecom network operators are subject to civil penalties if it is found that in some area they have not provided records of the location of their underground cables.  For this and other reasons the quality of the underground data has been improving and it is expected that within a couple of years, excavators will be able to rely on the public database instead of having to contact network operators directly for records of the infrastructure in the area of  a planned excavation.

An important question for any data included in a digital twin is fitness-for-purpose.  The most common use case for city digital twins is planning.  Other common use cases include noise abatement, wind and heat control, zoning compliance, permitting and right-to-light.  Each use case has specific data requirements. Many don't require survey-grade accuracy in location, it may only be necessary to refresh the data once or twice a year, and the level of detail may be low.  For underground utilities the OGC MUDDI underground standards project has identified several uses cases for information about the location of underground infrastructure; routine street excavations, emergency response, utility maintenance programs, large scale construction projects, disaster planning and response, and smart cities programs. Each has different requirements for access, data quality, currency and level of detail.

The only instance I know of in North America of a province or state wide database that includes maps of most utility infrastructure is the Integrated Cadastral Information Society (ICIS) in British Columbia. ICIS maintains a database of geospatial data including cadastral and parcel map for the province, civic address registry, assessment data, utility infrastructure data contributed and maintained by major utility organizations operating in BC, and local government infrastructure data, including sewer, storm and water mains. ICIS is a non-governmental and non-profit organization that is supported entirely by its members including telecommunications and utility companies, local governments, First Nations, the Provincial Government, Federal Government departments, and private surveying companies.ICIS data is used for efficient communication between utilities, safe operations and emergency response, optimized infrastructure planning and operational service delivery, and shared spatial reference data for engineering and survey work. Data contributed by members may be refreshed one or twice a year.  But the requirements of one call legislation are very specific and damage prevention during excavation is not a use case directly supported by ICIS.  And this is even though British Columbia is the only jurisdiction in North America that I know of where network operators can opt to provide plans (paper or digital) of their underground services in response to one call requests. In fact, the last time I checked there was no relationship between ICIS and British Columbia One Call (BC1C).

The key question for jurisdictions developing digital twins and considering including the underground is for which use cases is underground infrastructure data with its current limitations - restricted access and incomplete, inaccurate and out-of-date data - fit-for-purpose ?  For Helsinki it appears that there are no compelling use cases for underground data in its current state. While for other jurisdictions such as Rotterdam, Estonia and Slovenia there are sufficiently compelling reasons for including underground data in a digital twin.

Innovative solution efficiently captures accurate underground utility as-builts during construction

Most of underground utility damage during construction is attributable to incomplete, inaccurate and out of date records and network documentation. This data is the result of an inefficient, error-prone, and paper-based information flow from engineering, through construction crews, and resulting in "as-builts" of uncertain quality which eventually form the utility's repository of record, typically in a GIS.  Recently a mobile solution has been developed that ensures that centimetre-level accurate as-builts are efficiently captured in the field in real-time. By digitalizing and automating the collection and validation of all construction data, accurate and up-to-date as-builts become the new normal.  Already used by over half of the 20 largest energy companies in the US, the Locusview system is being extended to support natural gas utilities, electric power utilities and telecom.

Background

Without accurate maps of underground infrastructure, every construction project has the potential to become an expensive disaster site. In the U.S. there are between 400,000 and 800,000 incidents of underground utility damage every year. Every year there are injuries and fatalities attributable to underground utility damage during construction. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) missing or inaccurate location information about underground utilities is a major source of highway construction project delays. The drag on the U.S. economy resulting from underground utility damage is estimated to be at least $50 billion annually.

Inefficient, error prone construction information flow

90% of underground utility damage during construction is attributable to incomplete, inaccurate and out of date records maintained by utilities and telecoms as well as data format issues including paper and digital ink (pdf).  The reason for unreliable records of network infrastructure can be found in an information flow that is found at every utility and telecom.

The design-build-maintain information flow begins with an engineer and drafter producing a design, typically a CAD drawing, which is printed for construction contractors to use in the field in installing new underground network infrastructure. Typically the design is based solely on above-ground surveys because information about existing underground infrastructure is unreliable or missing. The construction contractor may attempt to follow the paper design drawing, but for a variety of reasons what actually ends up in the ground differs from what was designed.  The design drawing, nominally an "as-built" but typically an “as-designed”, is then returned to the records management/network documentation group who enter it into the utility's GIS where it forms the permanent record of the utility or telecom's network infrastructure. This process is slow and error-prone and backlogs of as-builts waiting to be entered into the GIS stretch into months. The result is that utility and telecom GIS data is often inaccurate, out-of-date and incomplete.

Accurate as-builts are becoming mandatory

To address the problem of unreliable as-builts and the associated human and economic consequences several governments have enacted legislation and regulations requiring the submission of accurate as-builts.  Montana has recently revised its statutes governing the installation of utilities on state highway right-of-ways.  An updated Administrative Rule mandates that as part of a new permitting process accurate electronic as-builts must be submitted to the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) upon completion of construction.  To ensure accuracy the regulations require that the as-builts be stamped by a licensed professional engineer (PE) or professional land surveyor (PLS). 

In 2017 the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) released a standard and specifications for the procedure and practice of utility surveying in Singapore.  The standard specifies that after installing utilities and prior to filling the trenches an as-built survey must be performed by a registered surveyor to capture the location of the utilities with horizontal accuracy of ±100mm and vertical accuracy of ±100mm.  In addition the standard specifically identifies the survey equipment to be used; total station, GNSS Real Time Kinematic (RTK), or 3D laser scanning.  This standard is not mandated, but provides a baseline to be incorporated in all government construction contracts.

In response to the requirement for accurate as-builts, the challenge for contractors is to capture accurate as-builts without adding to field crew workload and without impact to project schedules.

Digitalizing the construction information flow

Locusview was founded in 2014 as a spin-out of the US Gas Technology Institute (GTI) with industry funding to develop next-generation digital construction technology for the energy and telecom industry

Locusview has adopted a paperless, digital approach based on a mobile app that makes field crews the nexus for efficiently capturing accurate as-built information.  The user-friendly mobile application makes it easy and even attractive for crews in the field to move from a manual, paper-based process to one in which all construction data is digitally captured and validated in real-time during construction.  In addition to ensuring that as-builts accurately represent what was actually built in the field, this approach reduces time and costs in field data collection, reduces the time required to prepare as-builts for submission, and ensures that data gets into the GIS faster.

During construction field crews use the Locusview Mobile app with high accuracy GPS and barcode scanners to capture as-builts, track material usage, capture photos and support other field operations such as joints, splices and welds. But the app doesn’t just capture the asset information, it also validates that the information is complete and accurate according to the company’s data requirements and construction standards. Locusview captures material data faster and more accurately with automated feature creation and attribute generation using barcode scanning. In the case of gas utilities information on all welds and joints needs to be recorded because if done incorrectly welds and joints can lead to leaks and other problems. Locusview helps ensure that these processes are carried out correctly by capturing real-time pictures and by validating welder qualifications (OQ).

High accuracy GPS is implemented in several ways.  RTK base stations can be used for real-time high accuracy GPS. In GPS denied areas a laser range finder can be deployed. Alternatively control points can be used to ensure accurate georeferencing.

Back in the office the Locusview Web application enables visibility into the real-time status of projects, making it easier to assess progress and to project revenue streams. It also provides for data validation with automated warnings and notifications of violations; review and approve pre-configured check lists; exporting data to GIS, ERP and asset management applications; reports generation and project closeout.

Benefits

There are several critically important benefits that Locusview provides.  Most critically it provides for real-time reality capture, ensuring construction quality by enabling survey-grade accurate location, attributes and material data to be recorded by construction crews as new infrastructure is installed.  This ensures that as-builts are accurate and material usage is verified and traceable. It reduces the time to prepare as-builts for submission and speeds up the process of getting the as-built information into the utility's GIS by up to 70%, which is also crucial for emergency repairs. Having full visibility over the project’s status information in real-time using Locusview’s web tool makes it easier to track project progress and to project revenue streams. The field visibility also enables supervising the work remotely, which is helpful during Covid-19 times. In addition, time and costs are reduced for capturing and managing construction data by eliminating manual paper-based processes.

Just as importantly Locusview ensures that field construction information is captured efficiently. Maintaining a survey team on site to survey newly installed pipes and cables can be prohibitively expensive especially for smaller projects.  In actual projects it has been found that Locusview can reduce surveying costs by 50%.

In summary, utilities and telecoms use the technology to build a high-quality digital twin, to support asset management strategies and to ensure regulatory compliance.

Electric power case study

VPI, a Charge company, specializes in the construction of utility-grade electric power distribution infrastructure. During a recent major project involving 35,000 feet of open trenches and 35 construction sites for a large electric power utility in California the as-built requirements changed for both above and below-ground distribution infrastructure. Among the new requirements: as-built locations had to be accurate to ± 0.2 feet (± 6 cm).   One of VPI's major concerns was the cost of keeping a professional survey crew on-site at all times to capture the location of infrastructure to survey accuracy.

VPI looked for an alternative that would lower costs and provide the flexibility of not having to coordinate with outside survey crews.  VPI's main concerns were how to efficiently meet the high accuracy requirements, how to optimize the training and education of field staff, and avoiding adding to the work load of their field crews.

Locusview implemented their solution for VPI to meet the new high-accuracy GPS as-builting requirement that included the mobile app, web app and additional RTK base station coverage. The mobile app was found to be easy-to-use after only four hours of training for field crews. Most importantly using the mobile app instead of a traditional survey crew did not add to field crew workload and was able to be implemented without impact to schedule. Remarkably for this type of project the process only required 10 days from first contact to beginning data collection. 

It enabled 16,362 feet of linear electric power assets to be mapped with a median accuracy ± 0.14 feet (4 cm).  Nearly 5,000 photos were captured for future reference. With the web application crew foremen were able to monitor construction progress in real-time to ensure data collection was complete and met their requirements before back filling trenches.  Avoiding the need to coordinate with outside survey crews resulted in a time savings of ~20% in project management for closeouts and reduced time in the field. Overall VPI realized cost savings of ~50% from reduced man-hours.

Conclusion

This remarkable application provides a solution to the decade-old challenge of efficiently capturing high accuracy as-builts in real-time and eliminating the problem of as-built backlogs.  Gas is the most dangerous underground utility and it is not surprising that the development of the Locusview solution was fostered and heavily adopted by the gas distribution industry.  Jurisdictions are beginning to require high accuracy as-builts from energy companies, electric power utilities, water utilities and telecom as a basis for a digital twin. To capture accurate as-builts efficiently is the challenge that Locusview addresses. The VPI case study shows that Locusview is able to provide efficient solutions for capturing accurate as-builts without adding to field crew workload and without impact to project schedules. This solution offers important benefits for any field constructed linear asset.

Innovative technology uses AM radio waves to detect underground infrastructure

In the last few years there have been important advances in technology for detecting underground infrastructure including capturing ground penetrating radar (GPR) scans at highway speeds, combined GPR and LiDAR scanning for simultaneous above and below-ground mapping, software to simplify the interpretation of GPR scans, inertial mapping of pipe networks, and acoustic locating to name a few.  Most recently a new technology originally developed for military purposes uses AM radio waves to detect underground assets.

Background

The $10 trillion global construction industry is facing a crisis. For many of the world's advanced economies including Japan, Germany, U.S., South Korea, and U.K. construction productivity has been stagnant or even declining for decades. Virtually all of the funding for infrastructure was sourced from government who were looking for a social return on the investment. Since the mid 2000s, an increasing proportion of investment in infrastructure has come from private sources; pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds which together manage over $60 trillion. These sources of investment are expecting a financial return and that is driving a growing investment in construction technology to improve productivity. Historically, investment in research and development by the construction industry has been very low compared to other industries. Several years ago a McKinsey Global Institute study compared the degree of digitalization of nearly 30 industries and concluded that construction ranked right at the bottom with hunting. But there are signs of a change. Venture capital investment in technology startups in the construction sector is growing especially since 2018.

Detecting underground infrastructure

In the last few years there have been important advances in technology for detecting underground infrastructure. Advances in ground penetrating radar (GPR) now make it possible to safely capture scans at roadway speeds. One of the important challenges of GPR is interpreting the scans which has required a trained geotechnician. New software developments are simplifying the interpretation of GPR scans, enabling surveyors and other professionals to use GPR technology effectively. LiDAR is being applied to efficiently capture the location of newly installed underground pipelines. The simultaneous capture of above and below-ground scans using LiDAR and GPR creates a complete assessment for construction projects. Inertial mapping can be used to map underground pipe networks for up to two kilometers. Advances in acoustic locating show the technology can be effective in detection underground objects down to 30 feet.

Detecting underground infrastructure with AM Gradiometer

KCI reports that the AM Gradiometer can be configured to be hand-held or placed on a cart.

KCI is an engineering, planning and construction firm with customers across the United States. KCI recently had the opportunity to pilot and is now utilizing an innovative technology AM Gradiometer (AMG) to detect and map underground infrastructure. This is a patented tool that uses AM-band transmissions from radio station towers to detect subsurface objects. The device’s antennas detect AM radiofrequency signals reflected from underground assets. The device consists of multiple receiver antennas.  The spacing between the antennas determines the depth at which the device detects objects. A typical configuration includes three antennas. When closely spaced they detect shallow targets (5-10 feet). Intermediate-spacing detects targets at medium depths (10-20 feet), and more widely-spaced antennas can detect deep targets (30-50 feet).  The data can be exported in several forms including as a spreadsheet, a Google Earth map, and a CAD file.

An AM Gradiometer scan is performed in a grid pattern over an area of planned excavation. The device can be pushed on a cart or carried by hand.  The AM Gradiometer also includes GNSS capability and the ability to be tracked with a total station for accurate georeferencing. The device can detect electrical conductors, metal pipes, non-metallic conduits, liquid or air-filled void space, natural gas or fuel lines, brick or concrete sewer lines, shielded fiber optics cables, and hydrocarbon or saline moisture plumes.

New standard for capturing information about underground utilities exposed during construction

In Germany a new standard for documenting and exchanging information about underground infrastructure exposed during construction has been developed. Referred to as DIN SPEC 91419 it provides a standardized way to capture and share a wide range of information about the underground and has important implications for the continuous improvement in the reliability of location and other information about underground infrastructure.

Despite the documentation (records) about their networks maintained by utility and telecom network owners, what is actually underground and where it is located remains uncertain. A wide range of technical issues can only be identified after exposing underground infrastructure.  Information about the underground that is inaccurate, out of date and often missing means that engineering designs often have to be modified on site after construction has begun. This results in inconsistencies between design and what is actually built which are largely undocumented. "As-designeds" are submitted as "as-builts" and the viscous cycle continues.

Providing a mechanism for improving the quality of network documentation and records is being recognized as an essential component of a program for reducing damage to underground utilities. For example, The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has implemented a cloud and mobile system that incorporates elements of survey and GIS practice and technology. The system provides for recording and sharing the location and other information for underground utilities from SUE surveys, surveyors and other sources among CDOT, large and small construction contractors, network operators, and other stakeholders. Access to this data is provided over the web, enabling staff to access underground utility location maps on a handheld in the field at a construction site. The CDOT system includes an important capability that enables input from handhelds in the field during construction. This increases field staff engagement and enables staff to actively contribute to improving the accuracy of location and other information stored in records.

The prototype system developed for the National Underground Asset Registry pilots in the U.K. for sharing location and other information about underground assets among government roads agencies, network operators and others includes a similar field feedback mechanism.   Referred to as “observations”, comments on discrepancies between what is shown by the system and what is actually observed in the field as well as changes made during construction can be reported and are incorporated with their location in the NUAR database. I believe that the latest version of the KLIC system in the Netherlands also implements a similar capability.

The new standard for the documentation and exchange of data about underground infrastructure exposed during construction uses XML encoding.  It provides a standardized way to capture and share a wide range of information about the underground including

• Name, role and affiliation of data provider. Roles include surveyor, construction foreman, site manager, excavator, project leader, structural engineer, etc.
• Location of site where data is reported
  
• Content can include technical reports, observations, notes, photos and videos
  
• Keywords characterizing the information such as subsoil investigation, BIM model, gas pipeline, cable duct, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, etc.

Example of photo and other information about utilities exposed during excavation

An online system localexpert24 has been developed that allows sharing of information about the underground.  This system provides all stakeholders on a project access through a very simple interface to all the information about the underground that a local expert considers to be important - in essence providing a situation assessment for the underground.

To put this in a broader context procedures and technologies for raising the level of accuracy, timeliness and completeness of the location and other information about existing underground infrastructure is one of the most important measures for reducing damage to underground utilities during construction. Enabling direct input from the field, where staff can see what is actually in the ground, and sharing this information are indispensable to a program of continuing quality improvement in information about the underground.

Many thanks to Markus Becker, founder of localexpert24.de and one of the initiators and authors of the DIN SPEC 91419 standard, who brought this remarkable initiative to my attention.

New ASCE standard guideline for recording and exchanging utility infrastructure data is imminent

The release of the new ASCE Standard Guideline for Recording and Exchanging Utility Infrastructure Data (also referred to as the utility as-built standard) developed under the auspices of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE’s) Construction Institute(CI) and Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute (UESI) is imminent. The standard draft passed committee ballot in November 2019 and in January 2020 all comments were addressed. Next step is a reconciliation report and then the standard will be available for public comment. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has already adopted the standard draft for the Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration (MUDDI) initiative.

The purpose is to facilitate data collection, data management, and data exchange among stakeholders. It is designed to complement the widely used ASCE 38-2 Standard Guidelines for the Collection and Depiction of Existing Subsurface Utility Data. 

As a reminder ASCE 38-02, published in 2002, is intended to standardize the classification of the quality of location information about existing subsurface utility networks on engineering drawings. The standard defines four quality levels based on method used to determine the location of underground assets. 

1. Precise horizontal and vertical location of utilities obtained by the actual exposure and subsequent measurement of subsurface utilities, usually at a specific point.  Accuracy is typically set to 15-mm vertical and to applicable horizontal survey and mapping accuracy as defined or expected by the project owner.
   
2. Information obtained through the application of appropriate surface geophysical methods to determine the existence and approximate horizontal position of subsurface utilities.
3. Information obtained by surveying and plotting visible above-ground utility features and by using professional judgment in correlating this information to Quality Level D.
4. Information derived from existing records or oral recollections.

The basic deliverable for utility information is a CAD file or plan sheet that has quality levels A, B, C, and D and assigned to each asset.  Quality level A data typically requires a supplemental data form with additional information. This standard does not address the quality of vertical information other than for quality level A data.

New ASCE Standard Guideline for Recording and Exchanging Utility Infrastructure Data

A white paper on the new ASCE standard was published in 2018 which provided an overview of the new standard and its intended use cases. (The actual standard when it is made available publicly may differ from the white paper.)The new guidelines are targeted on two use cases;

1. capturing and recording the location of new utility data at the time it is installed and for
2. recording location data for existing utilities exposed during construction.

It is intended as non-binding guidance to assist right-of-way and utility owners in establishing their own standards.  The objective of the guideline is to provide a common definition for communicating the positional accuracy of utility assets and define a minimum set of data attributes necessary to communicate the position along with the type of equipment, geometry, function, ownership, materials, status and other information for each asset. The guideline specifies essential elements for documenting the location and attributes of underground and above-ground utility infrastructure, especially for newly installed utilities and for utilities exposed during construction. It defines levels of positional accuracy of utility infrastructure.

Positional accuracy

ASCE 38-02 is not prescriptive with respect to accuracy and is generally 2D in focus, whereas more modern quality standards such as PAS 128, the French DICT, and Canadian CSA S-250 which reflect modern technical developments specify accuracy in 3D. The new standard guidelines specify positional accuracy. 

Data model

The guideline does not provide a prescriptive utility data model but defines the elements of utility data needed to facilitate exchange of a 3D utility model with sufficient attributes for civil engineering.

The guidelines also require that metadata should be provided with all exchanged data including feature type, how and when the data was collected, the coordinate reference system and datum used, the individual(s) who certified the data, and any known limitations.

By the way March 16th is the deadline for public consultation and comments on the PAS128 2020 Revision.

Elements for improving underground utility mapping to reduce risk of damage during construction

Without accurate maps of underground infrastructure, every construction project has the potential to become a disaster site. Unlike the aviation industry where reliable data is collected and is accessible to investigators to prevent disasters from happening in the future, there is limited access to data about the location of underground infrastructure and what data is accessible is inaccurate, out-of-date and incomplete with the result that serious incidents during construction with injuries and fatalities occur again and again.  It is estimated that in the United States $10 billion is devoted to locating underground infrastructure prior to and during construction, but the available statistics indicate that this is not reducing the number or severity of incidents of underground utility damage.  Furthermore inaccurate and missing information about underground infrastructure increases the risk of schedule and budget overruns.  It has been estimated that this represents a $50 billion drag on the U.S. economy and upto a £6 billion drag on the U.K. economy.

Nearly every month the news carries reports of explosions caused by damage to underground utilities during construction excavation. In the last few months of this year there have been explosions in Murrieta, California (July) where a utility worker was killed and 15 others injured, downtown San Francisco (February), Durham, North Carolina (May), and I could go on. These incidents are more frequent than many people realize. 

This is not an impossible problem. A number of cities, regions and countries around the world have recognized the importance of accurate information about the location of underground infrastructure and implemented processes to reduce the risk of these events. For example, comparing the United States and Japan reveals a startling difference in the number of incidents of underground utility damage during construction. The number of incidents in the U.S. is between 400,000 and 800,000 per year (roughly one or two every minute). For all of Japan the number of incidents in 2016 was 134. Clearly something can be done to reduce the risk for construction workers and the public.

Over the years I have personally compiled information on 25 jurisdictions including airports in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific that have implemented various policies and organizational structures for sharing information about the location of underground infrastructure. These range from government mandated and implemented, government mandated and privately implemented, voluntary industry associations, and private companies. In this article I provide a synthesis of measures most of which have been implemented, are being implemented, or have undergone pilot implementations. These can be grouped in several broad categories.

• Reliable statistics on underground utility damage

• Policies, procedures, and technologies for raising the level of accuracy, timeliness and completeness of information about the location of underground infrastructure.

• Digitalizing the capture, sharing and updating of location information about underground infrastructure.

• Ensuring security and privacy of location information about underground networks including protection for competitive information. 

• Providing access to stakeholders to underground infrastructure location information throughout the construction project life-cycle from planning and design through construction to operations and maintenance.

• Liability model for sharing responsibility for costs of underground utility damage.

Airports, university campuses, and industrial campuses are characterized by a greater density of underground utilities and by more types of underground equipment( communications cables, aeronautical ground lighting cables, gas mains, low voltage electric power cables, high voltage electric power cables, storm water mains, sanitary waste water mains, potable water mains, grey water mains, fuel mains, fire fighting water mains, and a variety of underground structures.) Underground infrastructure in airports, university and industrial campuses typically has a single owner though not always.

Public jurisdictions such as national, regional, state or provincial and municipal governments are responsible for the public right of way.  Typically underground infrastructure in the public right of way involves multiple private owners; telecom network operators, electric power utilities, gas network operators, water and wastewater operators,and others such as heating and fuel transmission pipeline operators. Dealing with multiple private owners who attempt to maintain information about their network facilities typically in a GIS considerably complicates the process of acquiring and maintaining accurate location information about underground cables and pipes.

1. Reliable statistics are essential to determine the social impact of underground utility damage and to assess the effectiveness of policies, procedures and technologies designed to reduce the number and severity of incidents of underground utility damage. Every incident of damage to underground infrastructure should be reported including injuries, fatalities and direct cost. Indirect cost is a nice to have, but very difficult to estimate. Cause is difficult to determine because it depends on who is reporting the incident - network operator, the excavator, or by an independent organization.  A network operator's perspective may be that the contractor did not exercise care during excavation, whereas the contractor's perspective may be that the location of the cable or pipe as identified as a result of a one-call request was inaccurate.  Responsibility for submitting this information has to be assigned to the   One option for doing this efficiently is to classify incidents by seriousness and assign different levels of reporting based on this classification. For pipelines PHMSA assigns levels of seriousness based on cost, consequence, injuries and fatalities.  Significant incidents include any of the following: (1) Fatality or injury requiring in-patient hospitalization, (2) $50,000 or more in total costs,(3) release of significant volumes of gas or hazardous liquid. Serious incidents include a fatality or injury requiring in-patient hospitalization.  In civil aviation each serious incident is investigated by the NTSB, an impartial group of experts who determine technical cause but do not assign blame. The available evidence from the U.S. civil aviation industry, pipeline industry, and many national statistical agencies suggest incident reporting should be mandated to ensure statistically reliable data.  This entails significant penalties for not reporting incidents. Ex. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Heathrow International Airport, Japan Construction Industry Association

2. 3D mapping of underground infrastructure prior to planning and design. Making the location of underground infrastructure available to engineers so that designers have access to not only accurate above-ground survey but also accurate below-ground location information enables engineers to avoid underground infrastructure during design. 3D maps of underground utilities also contributes to reducing unnecessary and costly utility relocation. Below-ground location information should be at least ASCE quality level B.  The entire area should be should be assessed by an SUE engineer in collaboration with utilities and telecoms with equipment in the area. The assessment may include scanning with modern remote-detection tools (EMI, GPR and inertial locating ) to raise the quality of location of all underground facilities to QL B and to identify abandoned or unknown infrastructure.  The cost of raising the quality level of facilities in the design area to B could be assigned to the relevant network operator, engineering firm or shared. For unknown and abandoned equipment an attempt should be made to find the original owner. Ex. Colorado 811

3. Locating unknown and abandoned facilities.  The current one-call system is targeted toward utilities locating their own facilities, typically based on their as-builts.  But there is no formal mechanism for locating facilities that have been abandoned or are not shown on network operator as-builts.  Requiring a full SUE survey in addition to a traditional surface survey at part of planning and design at the beginning of a construction project helps avoid surprises during construction. Ex. Colorado 811
   

4. Capturing and sharing the location of infrastructure detected as a result of a SUE survey at the beginning of a project or as the result of an information request to one-call/811.  Currently utilities are required to paint the ground and in some jurisdictions to provide a paper sketch indicating the location of underground utilities.   This information needs to be captured digitally and shared.  The objective is over time to build up a high quality (QL A and B) database of the location of underground infrastructure that can be shared.  Ex. Colorado Department of Transportation

5. Capturing and sharing the location of infrastructure exposed during construction. In the United States it is estimated that $10 billion is spent annually to locate underground infrastructure prior to and during construction.  Much of this information is not shared and the next time excavation occurs in the same area, the underground infrastructure must be located again.  If this information is captured and shared, over time a high quality (QL A and B) database of the location of underground infrastructure will be formed that will avoid locating the same infrastructure over and over again.  Alternatives for recording the location of exposed infrastructure include total station, RTK, and LiDAR, which tend to be expensive but high quality (QL A). Other alternatives are consumer photography with control points or structures with accurately known locations.  It is essential that this does not increase excavation costs for the contractor.  Contractor margins are tight and having to keep a survey crew on hand during excavation would significantly increase costs. There have been experiments by the City of Chicago, Bentley and Costain aimed at efficiently capturing location information about utilities exposed during construction.

6. An efficient process to update the information recorded in network operators' databases. Information captured as part of a SUE survey, as a result of an information request to one-call/811, or detected during excavation may differ from the records contained in network operators' databases.  For continuous improvement of the quality of the information about the location of network facilities requires an efficient way to compare and update this information.

7. Reducing or eliminating the update backlog.  Utilities regularly maintain underground infrastructure, move it as part of a construction project, or abandon it.  This information has to be reported back to the network operator to update the information in the utility GIS.  There are two dimensions to updates; the accuracy of the location information provided from the field and the update backlog, the time it takes for updates to be entered in the utility GIS.  As with the as-built backlog this backlog can stretch into months.  The objective should be better than a day. This issue can also be resolved by regulation or by a suitable liability model. Ex. Ofgem in the U.K. requires backlogs to not exceed 42 calendar days.

8. Improving the accuracy of location information for new underground infrastructure.  If all new facilities are located to survey quality, over time location accuracy will continue to improve  as older facilities are retired. Alternatives for recording the location of newly installed infrastructure include total station, RTK, LiDAR, and photogrammetry with control points or structures with accurately known locations.  Whatever the technology the result should be ASCE quality level A.  Special provision must be made for capturing the location of facilities installed using horizontal (trenchless) drilling, for example, inertial mapping of pipe networks.  Since reliable as-builts are generally a network operator responsibility - policies are required to ensure that as-builts for newly installed equipment are accurate. There are several ways to do this; legislation which enables a government or regulator to conduct QA/QC checks on submitted as-builts or a shared liability model that assigns some responsibility for subsurface utility damage to network operators whose as-builts are inaccurate or out-of-date. A  liability model would assign liability of any underground damage during subsequent excavation to the network operator if the as-built location information is incorrect. Ex. City of Calgary, Singapore

9. Reducing or eliminating the as-built backlog.  If the time it takes for as-built information to enter the utility GIS or other database from the time new infrastructure is installed is measured in months or longer, the utility GIS is not sufficently reliable for locating underground infrastructure for construction purposes.  The objective should be better than a day. This can be resolved by regulation or by a suitable liability model.  Ex. Ofgem in the U.K. requires as-built backlogs to be less than 42 calendar days.

10. Assigning a quality level based on a generally accepted quality standard to every piece of underground infrastructure. This is critical for determining the type of excavation equipment that it is appropriate to use. It can also provide the basis for a shared liability model.  Ex. ASCE 38-02 in the U.S., CSA S250 in Canada, PAS 128 in the U.K., France DICT

11. Digitalizing the capture and sharing of information about the underground.  In North America, most one-call legislation only requires marking the ground prior to the initiation of construction.  In Ontario a written record is required in addition to marking the ground. At the federal level in Canada there is legislation initiated in the Senate and that offers the alternative of the exchange of only a written record of the location of utilities mapped prior to excavation - no visit to the site to mark the ground is required. This would open the door to exchanging a digital record of the location of utilities found prior to excavation which would be much more efficient because it could obviate the need to visit the site of the proposed excavation.  However, it would also a higher quality standard for the location of underground infrastructure than is currently the practice.  Ex. ROADIC (Japan), KLIP in Flanders, KLIC in the Netherlands

12. Digitalizing the flow of information about underground infrastructure requires a generally recognized standard for sharing information about the subsurface. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is developing an underground information exchange standard, with the appropriate acronym MUDDI, that is intended to provide an open standards-based way to share information about the below ground. There are a number of data models for different types of underground infrastructure and geotechnics. MUDDI builds on and augments existing standards to create a unified model supporting multiple use cases. The MUDDI model is intended to support routine street excavations, emergency response, utility maintenance programs, large scale construction projects, disaster planning and response, and smart cities programs. For street excavations the requirement is location of all entities with high horizontal, medium vertical accuracy (2.5D) of underground infrastructure; for large construction projects, detailed 3D geometry of underground infrastructure and detailed 3D geotechnics; for emergency response, interdependencies between different networks; for utility maintenance, network topology and facility location and condition; and for smart cities the ability to monitor and relate streams of data from sensors. This has not yet been adopted by a jurisdiction, but agencies in the U.K. (Ordnance Surevy), Singapore (Singapore Land Authority), and New York (Fund for the City of New York) are actively supporting the development of the standard.

13. Efficient information flow.  Requiring vans with locating crews from several network operators to visit the site of a proposed excavation just prior to construction to scan the ground for their facilities using EMI and GPR and mark the ground is inefficient. An on-line system that allows an engineer or contractor to go online and define a polygon enclosing the proposed excavation and then within less than a day providing access to maps of underground infrastructure in the area can save network operators time and money.  However, the effectiveness of this solution is highly dependent on the quality of the location information maintained by network operators.  In North America the current one-call system requires that underground facilities be mapped to ASCE QL B before starting construction.  An online system providing digital maps composed of utility operators' as-builts would lower the accuracy of the location information provided to contractors and in the absence of other measures would likely increase underground utility damage. Ex, KLIP in Flanders, KLIC in the Netherlands.

14. Rules for the appropriate type of excavation equipment.  Rules are required that restrict the type of excavation equipment based on the quality level of underground utilities identified by network operators.  For example if facilities have been assigned ASCE quality level C or D, only hydraulic, vacuum or hand excavation may be used.  Ex. Heathrow airport

15. Security, privacy and protecting competitive information. To enable this information to be useful in reducing the risk of underground infrastructure damage during construction it has to be shared in a secure way which respects privacy.  In particular it must protect competitive information. There are a number of organizational ways of doing this; government can mandate, implement and run the system, government can mandate but leave it to the private sector to implement and run, an industry consortium with or without government mandate can implement and run the system, regulations could require sharing this information but leave it to the private sector to implement and run, or a private company could take overall responsibility.  Around the world there are examples where each of these alternatives can be found.  The information should be available to engineers during the planning and design phases of construction projects, to contractors for use during excavation, and to organizations responsible for operating and maintaining highways and other civil structures.  Other potential use cases for this data include disaster planning and emergency response.  Ex. KLIP in Flanders and KLIC in the Netherlands, North East Underground Infrastructure Hub (NEUIH) in Newcastle, England

16. Liability model for sharing responsibility for costs of underground utility damage.  The advantage of a rule-based shared liability model that assigns varying levels of responsibility to both contractors and network operators is that it provides motivation to network operators to improve the quality of their location information about their underground infrastructure existing and new.  An example of a shared model is the following: if a network operator identifies the location of a piece of underground equipment as Quality Level A according to the ASCE 38-2 standard and an excavator hits it, the excavator would be liable for costs if the facility was where the network operator said it was, or the network operator would be liable if it wasn't.  For an excavator intending to dig in an area where there is underground infrastructure assigned to level C or D, the cost to bring all infrastructure to quality level B would lie with the network operator (as it does now with North American one-call systems). If the network operator declines to do this, the liability for any underground damage would lie with the network operator. Ex. France DICT

These measures not only can reduce the risk of underground utility damage and the associated risk to the public during construction and thereby lower insurance costs, but can also significantly reduce the cost of infrastructure construction, for example, by avoiding major utilities and reducing the unnecessary and costly moving of utilities on civil engineering projects.

Experience has shown that over time these elements can result in increasingly accurate digital representations showing the location of underground infrastructure that is available to stakeholders in construction projects including planners, engineers, contractors and facilities managers, for utility maintenance, and potentially for other use cases such as utility outage management, disaster planning, emergency response and smart city programs.

Map of underground utilities available within one day of a one-call information request

On 30 July 2004 at a construction site in Ghislenghien, Belgium a one metre diameter natural gas pipeline ruptured resulting in 24 fatalities, including five fire-fighters, a police officer and five employees, plus 132 injured requiring hospitalization. It caused total devastation within 200 metres in an industrial/agricultural area destroying a cardboard mill, a gas station, and a large number of roofs and cars. A portion of the construction site was damaged and many agricultural fields burned. 

In 2007, the first version of KLIP, the Flemish one-call system which is a broker for information about the location underground utilities, went into production in Flanders. In the Netherlands in 2008 the Sub soil Cables and Pipelines Information Exchange Act (WION) came into effect. The objective of the system is to prevent damages to the utility network and to ensure the safety of excavators during excavations.  WION made KLIC, the Dutch one-call system, which had existed since 1967, mandatory for both network operators and excavators with severe penalties for excavators who circumvented the system. Violating WION can entail a maximum fine of € 450,000 for network operators and € 100,000 for excavators.  WION obligates all network operators to participate in the system, using a standard information model for registering their infrastructure. The KLIC-online system, which provides on-line information exchange of underground utility information between network operators and exvators, was built and is maintained by the Dutch Kadaster. The Agency Telecom, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, is designated as the regulator and enforcer of the act.

I blogged previously (2013 and 2014) about the Dutch KLIC system. In 2010 the Netherlands switched to a digital information system (KLIC-Online). Currently there is a charge of € 32 for every information request.

Anyone planning to excavate within the next 20 days is required to go to the KLIC App site and create a polygon enclosing the proposed excavation area (which cannot exceed 500x500 meters).  They then click on the type of work: dredging, grub/plan trees, deep ploughing, foundation work, drive piles, gardeners work, place/remove poles/masts, demolition work, pond digging, dam-wall/timbering, drainage, site preparation, place fencing, place cables/pipes, sewerage work, dig or excavate tanks/wells/containers, dig forage hole, or reallocation; enter personal information; and pay.  It is important to note that engineering design is not one of the options.

For 95% of information requests within one business day the excavator will receive an email with links to a location where maps of all underground infrastructure and the names of the utility and telecom operators with facilities in the excavation area can be accessed or downloaded. This data can be used both online and offline.  The system allows distances to be measured and provides information about the quality of the location information about underground utilities.  For the next 20 days the excavator is cleared to begin excavation unless some the facilities in the area are high consequence utility lines such as gas transmission and high voltage electric lines.  In these special cases the excavator will be directed to contact the network operator for supervised excavation.

Network operators are required to report all incidents of damage to their infrastructure including location, cause and other information.  Based on this and other information Kadaster publishes an annual report with statistics on underground utility damage.  The following is an example of statistics about underground utility information requests and damage in the Netherlands for 2018.

 

Network operators/managers	1,130
Annual notifications (request for info)	759,000
Annual excavation damage	41,169
Direct costs from damage	€ 34,500,000
Average repair cost per excavation damage	€ 838

I would assess the biggest benefit of the KLIC system is efficiency.  KLIC seems light years ahead of North America and other jurisdictions where every request for information to a one-call centre results in seven or so vans converging on the spot where detection tools are used to locate underground utilities whose location is then marked by paint or flags. 

However, to the best of my knowledge the goal of substantially reducing excavation damage has not yet been reached.  With tens of thousands of incidents of utility damage every year, there is certainly room for improvement. That this is achievable can be seen by contrasting the number of incidents in the Netherlands with Japan where in 2016 the number of incidents of underground utility damage was 134. 

Furthermore, information about the location of underground utilities needs to be available for other use cases than just excavation; first and foremost, the planning and engineering design phases of construction projects (as Colorado has just mandated), but also disaster planning, and emergency response.

Breakthrough broadens adoption of GPR in 3D mapping of underground utilities

Traditional output from a GPR scanner showing hyperbolas reflected from underground utilities

The major inhibitor to broader use of ground penetrating radar for detecting the location of underground utilities is the difficulty in interpreting radar scans.  The Technology Report Technology Advancements and Gaps in Underground Safety published by the Common Ground Alliance in 2018 identified "User-friendly GPR system to deploy for helping construction crews avoid utilities" as an important gap.  In September 2019 at Intergeo Leica Geosystems released the DSX ground penetrating radar system that is the first to address this gap in a compact, portable system.  The DSX system includes analytic software DXplore enabling GPR to be used productively without a trained geotechnics specialist by utility repair and maintenance, civil engineering and surveying companies.

Before the DSX, non-geotechnical professionals including surveyors found it a challenge to interpret GPR scans consisting of images with hyperbolas showing the reflections of RF waves from underground objects.  GPR remained the preserve of highly trained geotechnical and other underground engineering professionals.

As I discovered at a recent talk I gave to the Alberta Land Surveyors Association, there is a lot interest among the surveying community to expand their professional offerings beyond the traditional above ground survey to include below ground surveys.  Two years ago the one-button BLK360 opened up engineering grade laser scanning to a much broader professional audience.  Leica Geosystems is betting that with a similar focus on simplicity the DSX device and DXplore software is going to open GPR scanning to a much broader professional community, including civil engineering and surveying companies.

Output from the DSX with DXplore software showing tomographic image of detected underground utilities

The key feature of the DSX GPR device and DXplore software is analytics to interpret the GPR scans and visualize underground infrastructure in the form of tomographic images, rather than radar hyperbolas.

For accurate locating the DSX supports seamless integration of positioning sensors (GNSS antennas) and is the first device to be integrated into machine control workflow through avoidance zones based on an underground utility map generated by the DSX.

The DSX workflow is very simple: import available as-builts in the area as DXF or other CAD format files into DXplore.  If possible, walk the site to perform a visual inspection using an electromagnetic locator (EML) to search for power cables and conductive utilities and mark them on the ground.  Define a grid for the area to be surveyed.  Walk the grid with the DSX device linked with Leica GPS/GNSS antennas with real-time feedback on the DSX's display.  Create a georeferenced 3D map using the tomographic display (no hyperbolas !) of what was detected to manually identify suspected utilities on the display.  The software then processes the captured GPR images to confirm the utility pipe or cable.  You can then export a 2D or 3D vector file in a CAD compatible file format.  Very simple.

But too simple for experienced GPR practitioners. I have talked to very experienced GPR people who don't find the DSX interesting for them. As GPR experts they are trained to work with B-scan/radargram data representation and interpretation, thus expert systems such as Leica DS2000 or IDS GeoRadar Stream are more suitable.

But for people who don't have GPR experience, believe that underground surveying represents a significant business opportunity, and already use or know Leica Geosystems total stations or other survey equipment this is being seen as a way to get their toes in the water.  Furthermore I fully expect that Leica will not stop here but will continue to develop easy to use GPR software for detecting and mapping underground infrastructure including support for the multi-channel Leica IDS Georadar arrays that are being applied to very sophisticated mapping of underground infrastructure.