Data sharing boosts workzone safety

Faster and safer utilities works are the benefit of innovative data sharing moves – Mike Woof writes
March 2, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
RSS

Faster and safer utilities works are the benefit of innovative data sharing moves – Mike Woof writes

Utilities works in urban areas can cause major problems with regard to traffic congestion, as well as posing key safety issues for road users and site workers. Better planning of utilities operations can help tackle congestion and prevent jams, while also ensuring that on-site personnel have a safer working environment.

To ensure that site workers know the exact location of buried utilities, comprehensive mapping operations that provide access to accurate data are vital. These speed working and cut traffic delays, while reducing the risk of accidental electricity cable-strikes or damage to gas pipes, which can be extremely dangerous for site workers. In addition, the risk of flooding from striking water mains or causing Internet and communications blackouts from damage to fibre optic links can be avoided.

In the US, contractors can call up a central information centre to find out details of buried utilities. However in the UK this has now gone one step further with the availability of information to all interested parties on buried utilities being placed on-line.

This innovative approach to the management of utilities works is the result of a partnership that has produced the Intelligent Trench. The novel underground mapping solution is also being combined with 3178 PelicanCorp’s beforeUdig service to deliver a comprehensive and accurate national record-sharing service for underground assets in the UK. The new no-charge service allows local authorities and contractors to use the Intelligent Trench portal to access utility plan information directly from the portal’s data base, as well as to initiate utility plan requests for additional plan information through the beforeUdig service. And the data is available through a one-stop operation. The service provides asset data quickly and efficiently, saving time and money for all stakeholders, helps improve the on-site safety of workers, and protects underground assets from accidental damage.

Steve Voller, industry solutions director for Bentley Systems, representing Intelligent Trench, and Marcus Edwards, managing director of PelicanCorp (UK), have jointly stated that the service has been developed to meet the need for a solution combining direct access to underground asset data using the Intelligent Trench portal and an automated plan request service. The web portal is based on 2603 Exor technology, which is part of Bentley’s AssetWise platform for asset lifecycle management. With this combined service, planners or contractors requiring information about these assets can reduce the time required to source key data. As a result, they reduce their costs and benefit from the timely delivery of the location records they require.

Intelligent Trench combines advanced radio frequency identification (RFID) asset marking from 152 3M, field-based GPS data collection software from Trac-ID, a web portal and Exor spatial asset data base from 4019 Bentley Systems, and industry best practices, such as non-invasive surveys, from Infotec. Together, these technologies enable every excavation to be accurately and cost-effectively recorded, photographed, and mapped on a web portal. Access to the stored data is provided free of charge to registered users.

Highway & Network Management

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Software alliance improves productivity
    June 12, 2012
    In the fast moving world of construction software, major innovations are happening on a continuous basis. All the leading players are making notable contributions to the sector. A new strategic alliance just announced between the management and data handling software giant Pitney Bowes, and design and construction software producer Autodesk, will help create an end to end range of products and tools for rapidly evolving BIM strategies in the industry. In particular in should help develop an integrated suite
    Read More
  • A new road maintenance approach developed jointly can improve efficiency
    April 11, 2013
    Innovative road maintenance solutions in Austria. A sophisticated system for managing maintenance tasks has been developed in Austria to meet the specific needs of a highway concession package. Bonaventura Straßenerhaltungs-GmbH is a 100%-owned business of the French company Egis Road Operation S.A., and was founded to provide the road maintenance services of the first Austrian PPP infrastructure project "Ypsilon"(PPP-Ostregion, Paket 1) granted by ASFINAG. The concessionaire won a 30-year contract in 2006
    Read More
  • Weigh-in-motion key to maximising road life
    February 24, 2012
    The market and technology for weigh-in-motion systems continues to evolve – Mike Woof writes. for both mature and developing highway infrastructure networks, traffic densities play an important role in determining road wear and life. Monitoring traffic volumes and individual vehicle weight is crucial for ensuring roads can cope in the long term and that maintenance can be planned, while the problem of overloading can be eliminated.
    Read More
  • Innovation in road design and management software
    February 17, 2012
    The emphasis on data processing and re-use, continues to grow in the development of design and management software. The interoperability of software, the need to handle and process larger amounts of data, and re-use and retention of data sets from one task to another have been a growing emphasis in the past few years. It allows infrastructure companies to get better value from expensively collected information and to focus more on the whole life cycle of projects.
    Read More

Highlighted Content