Reconsidering The Standard Utility Data Model in Commercial Construction
How to Create & Maintain an Accurate Permanent Utility Record
By Christine Potter, GPRS
Your dig policy is clear: You have to refer to existing utility records, call 811, and have a full public utility mark-out of your planned excavation area before a bucket hits the ground.
I hate to be the one to remind you that even doing everything by the book, you’re still at very real risk of a utility strike. How great that risk is, and its impact on safety, damages, your schedule, your budget, and the continuity of utility services to the community depends on one thing and one thing only: knowing what lies beneath the surface of your site.
Yet getting that vital subsurface utility information – and keeping track of it – are often treated like a quick, one-off job and a regulatory nuisance, rather than the only thing standing between your excavator and a world of trouble.
In fact, the updated statistical model provided by the Common Ground Alliance’s DIRT Report shows that although 263.5 million incoming excavation notifications and outgoing public utility notices were transmitted throughout the U.S. via OneCall centers in 2023, utility strikes/damages continue to occur at a consistent rate; more than 211,000 utility damages were reported to CGA in the same year.
In 2021, GPRS conducted research via The Finch Group to better understand the impact that utility strikes have on facilities. Over 150 facility managers participated in the study nationwide. The information they provided contained trends that were unsurprising, and some data that was unexpected.
Actual comparison of electrical line data from previous as-builts at the University of Toledo (in white) vs. GPRS’ geolocated electrical utility map (red) in SiteMap®.
For instance, we discovered that utility information, for locations as varied as a 150-year-old university campus, a hospital, or a long-established auto plant, was kept in as many as four different locations – in a combination of paper plans, individual laptops, and GIS systems – and that managers considered this standard operating procedure. The vast majority also built-in routine budgetary items for remediating utility strikes, and 66% of all managers surveyed said they’d experienced damages in the preceding five-year period.
The average overall cost of those utility strikes was $56,000 in physical damages, service interruptions, lost labor, and up to six weeks of downtime, per strike.
The number of strikes and their cost were unsurprising; we hear these stories from customers every day. The randomized approach to data collection and retention was unexpected and underpins the need for digital permanent utility records.
Calling 811 is Step One
Calling 811 is a critical first step to identify your subsurface utilities. Plus, submitting that excavation notification is mandated by state and federal law. State OneCall services, like OHIO811, are not-for-profit protection services that help you to notify public utility owners/operators before commencing an excavation. The protection service will submit your notification to registered public utility owners and operators who are required to report their response by marking their lines and communicating through means such as positive response before you break ground.
Step two is understanding that notifying 811 of your planned excavation is the initial, critical data point in building a complete picture of your subsurface facilities; a permanent record that can be aggregated, updated, digitized, and versioned to provide your organization with comprehensive, secure, and sharable data to help you avoid utility strikes.
Creating a Permanent Digital Utility Record
Aggregating subsurface utility information – particularly in urbanized areas – can seem like a daunting task. Every day, more lines are being laid, many with trenchless technology, than ever before. But creating an up-to-date utility record can be done. Below are suggested steps to help you create and maintain a permanent record of underground utilities for a site of any size – from a single excavation point to a municipality – to help you plan, manage, dig, and build better.
Because GPRS has been in the business of existing conditions documentation, subsurface utility mapping, and damage prevention for almost 25 years, providing intelligent visualization services nationwide necessitated that we create our own data capture processes and management systems to keep our customers’ information secure, geolocated, and at their fingertips.
GPRS’ SiteMap® platform (patent pending) provides customers with digitized utility maps, among other applications, and its mobile app lets you keep your existing conditions data in your pocket.
The result is SiteMap® (patent pending). Launched in 2023, it is a proprietary GIS system that can house everything from a layered, interactive utility map to an integrated above-and-below-ground BIM-model flythrough, and everything in between. Inside SiteMap®, GPRS customers can find, annotate, aggregate, and securely share their site infrastructure data with anyone they designate, assuring they keep complete control. That’s why we provide complimentary SiteMap® access at the personal level to every GPRS utility locating customer.
Whether you create your own strike team of safety and data pros to collect and aggregate your historical as-builts or hire a professional utility locator to manage it for you, creating a permanent record of the subsurface is more important than ever.
This article was written by:
Christine Potter
Content Editor for GPRS
christine.potter@gprsinc.com
https://gprsinc.com
https://sitemap.com/