We're going deeper underground: New digital project to map UK's sub-surface 'assets'

The UK is pushing ahead with the next phase of a project to map the UK’s underground utility pipes and cables as part of its National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). It's claimed the new digital map will provide a much-needed resource as housebuilders, developers, utilities, and telcos plan their expansion works and …

[James 47]

Tiny bit related, but way cooler. A young man is trying to capture video [0] of what's going on in The Strid [1]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot8lr_5oHE4

[1] https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/11/bolton-strid-stream-that-swallows-people.html

[Chris Hills]

Prior art

There is already a service called LSBUD ("Line Search Before U Dig"). When I heard of this, I tweeted Ordnance Survey and apparently they did not do their homework. Perhaps a case of "not invented here"?

https://twitter.com/chaz_6/status/1323618449621483520

https://twitter.com/chaz_6/status/1323643179493695491

At the end of the day, if you are digging into the ground, you should never rely on anything but your own investigation (e.g. ground-penetrating radar or other techniques) because there is no guarantee they are up to date. I guarantee that even the owners of some assets do not know where they are.

[EvilDrSmith]

Re: Prior art

Yup, LSBUD is something that anyone digging holes should be consulting, Sadly, lots of people don't.

However, as you note, not every sub-surface utility is accurately mapped, and if the records are wrong/incomplete, then however comprehensive your record search, you could still hit something (or not find what you are looking for - you might be trying to actually locate the service, rather than miss it, of course).

So the value of this new digital mapping may depend on whether they are simply transferring exiting records into a new database/accessible mapping tool, or will actually do anything to confirm/verify/correct the data.

There is something called PAS128 (not a British Standard, but produced by BSi as the nearest thing to a standard) which is the standard for locating underground services, and that sets down 4 different types of survey / level of confidence, depending on what you need. The highest category (A) involves positive-identification of location (broadly, you dig a hole and positively find things).

GPR survey is Cat B.

PAS128 is about 7 years old now, so we've been trying to get this right for sometime.

[Pascal Monett]

Trying and failing ?

[Mspiers]

Re: Prior art

In addition, some buried assets are decidedly 3d and poorly represented in existing asset record systems.

Several times I've had cases where a few insignificant-looking manhole covers turned out to connect to cavernous underground structures, and neither Linesearch nor paying the sewerage undertaker for a copy of their records would have provided much information on just how big they were.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Prior art

"actually do anything to confirm/verify/correct the data"

digging it up seems to be the only sure way to do that.

[Stoneshop]

Re: digging it up seems to be the only sure way to do that.

Depends.

Now this was a minor matter, but when I had to connect a drain for the new bathroom to the existing one, under a 10cm concrete floor, no crawlspace, the drawing suggested it would be parallel to a particular wall at 90cm distance. The new drain would be running towards it at right angles, the trench in the floor had been cut and dug to the right depth, coming from the other side relative to that reference wall. So I widened the end of the trench into a hole and dug down. No main drain. Enlarged the hole, still nothing. So the drawing was incorrect, and I could either cut out some more of the concrete floor and get the sand out, or I could call a plumber to wave an electronic divining rod over the floor and tell me where to dig.

I opted for the latter.

He came and from one of the existing toilets snaked in a drain camera with a location sender, then waved a receiver thingie over the floor and marked the highest signal strength. The existing drain turned out to be just 40cm out from the wall, half a meter off from what the drawing said. This was confirmed by poking sideways from the hole, and finding the pipe. Saved a lot of guessing, and digging. But of course such a sender won't work that well in cast iron pipes, or live water or gas mains.

[Stoneshop]

Re: Prior art

I guarantee that even the owners of some assets do not know where they are.

Well, it's being said that a lot of people are unable to find their asses without a map, so they clearly do not know where those are. Maybe they should listen for braying, or they should have put a GPS collar on their donkey.

Oh, assets. Never mind.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: Prior art

Nonsense, its easy, I can find mine - they are in the middle of my arms :o)

[Chris Hills]

Re: Prior art

Something that can complicate asset location is when one utility locates their assets relative to another. For example, 5m from kerb, but the road layout has subsequently change so there is no longer a point of reference. In some cases, roads have been laid over the top of an asset (likely something that was a contributing factor in the speed with which the Grenfell Tower fire was fought.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/emergency-valves-to-turn-off-gas-at-grenfell-tower-may-have-been-buried-by-refurbishment-71562

[Arty Effem]

So 2.4 billion a year in damage, but the system will save only 0.35 Billion. Presumably most of the damage has other causes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lots of damage to underground assets isn't people digging into them accidently with a JCB, but things like collapse due to people driving heavy lorries over a drain, or tree roots, or floods and blockages, or rats chewing cables etc, none of which are particularly likely to be solved by better asset registers.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: HGV damage: One BT data centre that handles Critical National Infrastructure (such as 'Blue Light' services) is at the end of a cul-de-sac. Sometimes HGV drivers 'park' their lorries on the verge, not realising that it is not strong enough for the 40+ tonnes and collapses the duct ceiling protecting all those important cables.

I heard once that vehicles do damage proportional to the 5th power of the axel weight. So although electric cars are better for removing exhaust pollution, as they can weigh up to 1 tonne more than the equivalent petrol version, they do substantially more road damage. (The Land Rover iPace weighs in at 2 tonnes.)

Also the rat population UK (and here I mean rattus rattus, not the human kind) increased substantially after privatisation of the water utilities as previously under public ownership local councils had access to drains and sewers etc to place rat poison. Now they are privately owned, councils no longer have access and the rats have lovely poison-free homes to breed in.

Why does life have to be so complicated?

[Stephen Wilkinson]

Most councils don't provide pest control any more as it's not a mandatory service so even if they had access, they wouldn't be poisoning the rats.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the Government looking for more places to sweep the Dead Bodies under?

Catacombs have their uses.

[Doctor Syntax]

"avoiding accidental asset strikes, improving the efficiency of works and better data sharing."

That means they need better data to share. Much better data.

[Pete 2]

Not all in Blackburn, Lancashire

> it’s estimated that more than four million holes are dug in the UK each year,

So how about 1,000 Albert Hall's full?

[Stoneshop]

Re: Not all in Blackburn, Lancashire

And as one Albert Hall is about 85000 m^3, or 162337662.3377 grapefruits, one thousand of them would be 33961 Olympic swimming pools.

I sincerely hope the inhabitants of Blackburn are avid swimmers.

[Stephen Wilkinson]

Re: Not all in Blackburn, Lancashire

So one Albert Hall is one quarter of Blackburn, Lancashire?

[Roger Greenwood]

Mapping only gets you so far

Some years ago we had a new mains gas supply installed. The good news was that the gas main passed by in the road a few feet away. The bad news was that the road was also full of other services including HV/LV cables, water and telecoms, which everyone knew about.

Hole was dug with care, cables dodged, gas pipe identified i.e. cast iron, right size, right place.

Hole drilled, cue waterspout and village water supply cut for several hours, upset neighbours, innocent looks from us, new village swimming pool created.

Real gas pipe was a couple of feet away (deeper), same size, also cast iron.

It's going to need one hell of a map to follow all the existing services as they intertwine, at the accuracy needed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Costs

Lots of comments about this being 'hard' and it is - especially dealing with poorly documented legacy infrastructure. Doesn't mean its not worth trying.

Firstly for the future - as really with GPS etc there's now no excuse for not knowing where you are laying a pipe/cable, but you need to make sure that data isn't in a locked away proprietary system in someone's basement.

Secondly even if you don't have a perfect system, any system is better than no system. You might have to dig up the road to finally check, but you can save a lot of money if you dig up the right bit of road, or as close to the right bit of road as you can.

[Tron]

An extra layer on Google maps perhaps?

Incidentally, they are not assets, they are vulnerabilities.