Travel misery caused by roadworks could be radically reduced
Travel misery caused by roadworks could be radically reduced, claims underground survey company, ElectroDetection.
Anyone trying to negotiate public roads or footpaths to get to work, home or school knows the disruption caused by more than two million holes dug in the roads every year to repair or install pipes and cables. Much of this work is unnecessary and could be avoided if accurate information was known on the location of underground services.
There are millions of miles of underground pipes and cables in the UK , but unfortunately, no one really knows where most of them are. The result is a hole for every 200 yards of highway, new figures have shown.
"Up until recently, there was no legal requirement to map services under ground," says Andy Molloy, general manager of ElectroDetection, a subsidiary of Plowman Craven. "Each company has some understanding of where their services are located, but it's patchy and not very accurate. Their mapping doesn't usually include changes to the services, so workers can't necessarily trust the records they've been given. If you're trying to locate gas mains or electric cables, you couldn't really dig with any confidence," he says.
In the absence of records, utility companies dig a succession of test holes to locate services, often damaging the wrong pipes and cables and wasting time and money on unnecessary repairs. The consequences are potentially catastrophic, with fatalities and injuries the result of accidental hits on gas pipes and electricity cables.
Using the latest technology to provide comprehensive and detailed underground surveys ElectroDetection can accurately trace all known services on any site, removing the need for unnecessary digging.
"We connect a radio transmitter to a pipe or cable, which carries the radio signal along its length and we use tracing equipment to follow that signal on the surface," says Molloy. "It gives depth as well as position and is very precise. We also use ground penetrating radar to investigate buried structures, voids, pipes and cables, including plastic pipes. The two technologies go hand in hand," he explains.
In addition to the utility suppliers, construction companies and the rail and atomic energy industries use the service. On a regeneration site, where services already exist, new buildings need to be designed to connect with sewers, gas and water pipes and electricity and communications cables. The current Capital Schools Project is using the technology to design extensions.
"A small cost up front could save a lot of time and money by knowing where the utilities are. There is a cost reduction in the end," says Andy Molloy.
The ElectroDetection team starts by liaising with the client and examining any existing utility records before conducting on site investigations using radio and radar technology. The company has produced data on several thousand sites in Britain, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, The All England tennis Club, Lords and the Oval cricket grounds and the Guildhall, London.
The Department of Transport is calling for better management of works by utility companies including a computer based mechanism to collect information on all proposed work on or under roads. This would certainly provide some co-ordination, but there is no central data base to establish whether the hole is in the right place to begin with.
"There is some sharing of data between utility companies already," says Molloy."They are usually happy to provide information where possible, to stop any damage being done by anyone else. But the data can date so quickly, certainly in recent years the explosion of telecoms services means the picture gets more and more complicated."