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Subsurface Utility Engineering in Ontario: Challenges & Opportunities
... Furthermore, Zeiss [4] found that low-quality as-built records of underground utilities in Singapore contributed to wrong decisions, lengthy and deceptive planning processes, unnecessary costs, more litigations, and overall impairment of construction success. Other consequences include increased time and costs, improper logistic support management and employee organisations, disruption to utility services, and injury and fatalities [22]. Zhang and Wu [23] estimated that a conservative estimate of public costs was as much as USD 1.5 billion, correlated with buried services' excavation losses in 2016. ...
... There was also a consensus that enhanced communication among project parties, proper record keeping, and improved knowledge base and site inventory could reduce utility damage incidents in NZ (Q17-19). Lastly (Q21, 22), respondents felt that the human element through operators and their supervising managers significantly influenced utility damage incidents. ...
There are increasing incidences of damages to underground utilities and services during maintenance and construction works. These have posed significant challenges to utility owners regarding the magnitude and costs associated with remediation works. Therefore, this study investigates the management activities for underground utility maintenance works in New Zealand to establish the significance of as-built drawings as a mitigator of these challenges. Data for the analysis was obtained through a questionnaire survey of asset owners, consultants, and contractors based in three major city centres in New Zealand. The responses are analysed descriptively and inferentially for ease of understanding of the study findings. The findings established the challenges around the as-built records, which were significant to utility damages during construction operations in New Zealand. The study participants highlighted other factors such as poor project management, site records, communication, excavation operator competencies, and inadequate site inventory. Generally, more investment in asset documentation is recommended for asset owners. Innovative approaches to information capture, monitoring and updating of as-built drawings are also suggested to improve on current routine processes. Other solutions relate to skills acquisition and development in the management of underground utility maintenance projects.
... The availability of reliable information can lead to various cost reductions. This value is well known and documented for cases in Ontario and the United States (Osman &El-Diraby, 2005, andZembillas &Scott, 2010). In this section, a few examples are highlighted to underline the importance of reliable subsurface utility information for underground construction works. ...
... The availability of reliable information can lead to various cost reductions. This value is well known and documented for cases in Ontario and the United States (Osman &El-Diraby, 2005, andZembillas &Scott, 2010). In this section, a few examples are highlighted to underline the importance of reliable subsurface utility information for underground construction works. ...
To plan, develop, and manage underground space and make informed decisions leading to desirable outcomes, planners, land administrators, and engineers need to make sense of the underground. A reliable digital twin of the underground-a realistic, digital representation of the physical world below the surface-is required. Utilities, consisting of the pipes, ducts, cables, manholes and other assets that provide electricity, gas, water, sewerage, and telecommunication services, make up a significant portion of the shallow layers of the subsurface. A lack of reliable information on subsurface utilities may potentially lead to poor decisions leading to undesirable outcomes, lengthy and costly planning and land administration processes, and lengthy, costly, and hazardous development processes. The advent of mobile 3D ground penetrating radar technology offers the promise of non-destructive mapping of existing subsurface utilities in a large area in a relatively short amount of time and could potentially be used to improve the reliability of available information. In this work, a small number of cases studies are described at evaluating the feasibility of a large area mapping approach for subsurface utilities. Based on the results of the studies, a data capture framework for the gradual improvement of the quality of information on existing subsurface utilities is proposed.
... • Errors in the utility records on which the design is based: These errors were found to be extremely common in cases where sufficient field verifications are not performed (Osman & El-Diraby, 2005). • Failure to comply with clearance requirements set forth by individual utilities: ...
Information interoperability initiatives in the infrastructure domain have consistently lagged behind their counterparts in the building sector. Urban infrastructure development involves a tremendous amount of stakeholders that necessitate a seamless exchange of information and a mechanism to capture and reuse knowledge. One of the processes that have been found to involve a large amount of information exchange and rely on a considerable amount of cross-sector knowledge is the process of infrastructure route selection. As such, this paper presents a schema for representing spatial constraints that pertain to buried urban utility systems. These constraints drive the process of utility route selection that is a vital step in design. Constraints that are included in the interoperable model include tacit knowledge that experienced designers use in route selection. Although these constraints can be considered as 'best practices' rather than hard constraints, they are motivated by criteria that are often overlooked in traditional engineering design guidelines (sustainability, impact on businesses, maintainability, constructability, etc…). As a design tool to assist infrastructure routing in urban environments, the aforementioned model is implemented in a prototype web-based GIS decision support portal that can be used by designers of new utility systems.
Accurate location of buried utility infrastructures is a vital issue for utility owners, utility managers and engineers, designers, and contractors that perform new installations, repairs, and maintenance on highway projects. Unreliable information on underground utilities can result in undesirable consequences such as property damage, claims, and other social and environmental problems. Subsurface utility engineering (SUE) is becoming a significant method for reducing the potential for underground utility conflicts at the project planning phase. SUE accurately identifies, characterizes, and maps underground utilities through four quality levels. This study presents a SUE benefit–cost analysis (BCA) to encourage a better understanding of SUE and the use of SUE. Eleven main benefit factors and two cost factors are identified and estimated on twenty-two SUE projects and eight non-SUE projects from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) districts. In addition, this study reveals the relationship between benefit–cost ratio and complexity levels of buried utilities.
This paper investigates a relatively new engineering service that is being introduced in Ontario: subsurface utility engineering ( SUE). This service combines civil engineering, surveying, geophysics, and nondestructive excavation for the accurate mapping of underground utilities. This paper presents the results of a one-year study that investigated the use of SUE on large infrastructure projects in Ontario. The study involved performing a detailed cost analysis of nine successful SUE projects, four of which are presented in this paper. Potential cost savings were estimated for each case study and all indicated that SUE has a positive return on investment. In addition, two industry-wide surveys were conducted to investigate the effects of inaccurate utility information on projects. Results indicate that inaccurate utility information has a significant impact on project cost, schedule, and damage to existing utilities. Using the results of the case study analysis and the survey, a generic cost model for SUE was developed that relates project specific characteristics to costs that could be incurred because of inaccurate utility information. This investigation provides valuable insight to the application of a relatively new process in Canada following successful results in the United States.
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