Underground Utility Detection and Utility Mapping Solutions

The modern city is a maze of streets and alleys, buildings and barriers. As complicated as cities are on the surface, however, the problem below ground can be even more confusing: power, telephone and fibre optic cables compete for space with water and gas mains, wastewater drains and sewer pipes. Complicating the issue further, new utilities are constantly being installed and existing services relocated, with layers of utilities both in and out useful dating back so far as the 19th century.

For excavating contractors, encountering buried utilities during excavation can result, at best, in costly delays and financial or other penalties where services are disrupted; at worst, this scenario carries the chance of the problems for workers as well as death.

Before contractors commence excavation on a niche site, it is therefore vital that they remember to detect and locate all buried utilities likely to be affected by planned excavation or construction activities. In the first instance, this is likely to involve contacting a "before you dig" service. These services collate information from utility companies regarding the location of buried utilities and pass these data on - usually for a fee - to excavating contractors.

While utility tracking services provide an essential first filter for contractors, they're not infallible: maps may be incomplete or inaccurate; utilities may have been added, removed or relocated without that information being offered. For this reason, it is best for excavating contractors to activate the services of suitably qualified, experienced and equipped utility surveyors and a computer program mapping service.

Using Click here for more and technology such as for example electromagnetic detectors, radiodetection and ground penetrating radar systems (GPRS), it is possible to locate accurately an array of buried utilities including both metallic and non-metallic pipes and cables. These utilities can then be mapped using a combination of traditional survey techniques, GPS and geographical information systems (GIS) software.