RAT EATS CABLE- ASP Events
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ABSTRACT
Underground assets and buried services
in the estate are essential to keeping
buildings working and staff delivering
services. Out of sight needn’t be out of
mind. Read how it’s possible to easily
RAT EATS CABLE – access, share and update this critical
data to reduce risks, reduce costs and
create a safer working environment.
FM GETS Steve Voller
Founder
INDIGESTION
Managing underground assets and buried services in
the estate
altuity.com
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Copyright (c) Altuity Solutions Ltd, 2021
RAT EATS CABLE – FM GETS INDIGESTION
Some of your most critical assets are out of sight and often out of mind until there’s an issue.
Yes, it’s that hidden labyrinth of underground pipes, cables and ducts criss-crossing the estate
which are essential to keeping buildings working properly.
And yet the locations of buried services and underground assets often go unrecorded or aren't
kept up to date even though they need to be re-located because of, for example:
subsurface disturbance;
joint failures;
accidental strikes during excavations; or
our rat which chewed through cables in a duct creating all manner of problems for the
facilities and estates director.
Key questions about buried services
To minimise disruption to the services your building(s) provide; reduce costs and ultimately
reduce the likelihood of injury or worse to workers on-site, key questions to consider are:
Do you know where buried assets are in your estate and
their runs?
Can you quickly find valves or points of potential failure
such as joints and junctions?
Can you easily see where critical assets such as emergency
shut off valves are located?
Do you know where responsibility boundaries lie? For
example, between your organisation, a utility and a PFI
organisation.
Are you maximising your return from expenditure on site
surveys?
Can you, and essential staff/workers, access buried
services data 24x7 in the office and in the estate?
Being able to answer these questions will give you the whole picture on your underground
assets and buried services.
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Copyright © Altuity Solutions Ltd, 2021
RAT EATS CABLE – FM GETS INDIGESTION
How to increase confidence levels in your underground data
Whilst you can’t physically surface, or daylight, buried
services you can take steps to record information as they’re
being laid or repaired and bring other existing information
such as plans and drawings together into a single,
consolidated view.
This information will then be readily to hand in the future. It
can also become part of your all-important disaster and
recovery and risk mitigation strategies.
Making the invisible visible
Underground asset and buried services data has different characteristics and formats, such as:
Linear assets, for example, pipes and cables
Point assets, such as manholes and shut off valves
Survey data, plans and increasingly 3D imagery and models
Spatial data if it’s available
An ideal solution is to layer this data onto a map-based background with additional
functionality available to support the operational needs of an FM.
An FM doesn’t need access to a fully-featured Geographical Information System (GIS). A fit-
for-purpose system avoids unnecessary complexity and cost. However, if needed this
software should be capable of importing and exporting spatial data to a corporate GIS, e.g.
exchanging Shape files, or attribute data to and from an in-house asset management system.
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Copyright © Altuity Solutions Ltd, 2021
RAT EATS CABLE – FM GETS INDIGESTION
For example, in the image to the right buried
services data is available on three layers.
On a map
On a site survey plan
In a real-world aerial view e.g. drone
imagery
These bird’s eye views give us at-a-glance perspectives on:
The location of assets as recorded on site survey plans
Additional features of interest or data collected locally e.g. mapping a new pipe or
surface features such as manhole covers and shut off valves;
Future plans, e.g. proposed extensions or new buildings, meaning we can see the
potential impact on existing buried services and underground assets.
Complementing these top down views by taking photographs and collecting 360° imagery
during excavations adds to your understanding of what lies beneath the surface. Recording
data such as the asset type, depth, material, owner etc. gives you the detail. This information
is then available in the office as well as on a smart phone or tablet on-site – virtually opening
up the ground beneath the worker’s feet.
3D models are also increasingly available to
FMs as a deliverable from surveys.
These can be plugged into your underground
asset and buried services system and
integrated into the other available data.
All of the above build up a picture of what’s buried in the estate.
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Copyright © Altuity Solutions Ltd, 2021
RAT EATS CABLE – FM GETS INDIGESTION
Each incremental set of information is an insurance mitigating future issues while at the same
time improving estate management. Whether that’s reacting to an emergency, improving
planning for new build work, more easily locating buried services saving time and costs or
creating a safer environment for excavation work.
You may or may not be able to stop rats entering ducts but having access to comprehensive
data about buried services certainly makes it easier to trace the source of a problem. And if
that helps to improve digestion (and reduce headaches) then that’s a good thing.
Read more about how we can help manage your underground assets and buried services >>
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