FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TBE Group Brings Subsurface Utility Engineering
to United Kingdom - Opens Office in
Retford, Nottinghamshire

02/11/2008

• TBE Group, a world leader in underground utility engineering, brings Subsurface
Utility Engineering to the United Kingdom and opens branch office in Central England.
• James Lewis to serve as UK Branch Manager / Business Unit Manager
• Identifying and locating underground utilities becoming increasingly important,
especially in densely populated UK.

International / UK & Clearwater, FL –TBE Group (tbegroup.com), headquartered in Clearwater, FL, has announced the opening of a new branch office in the United Kingdom (UK). Located at 17B Aurillac Way, Retford, Nottinghamshire, DN22 7PX, the office will concentrate on providing subsurface utility engineering.

Nick Zembillas, Sr. Vice President, Utilities Division and an internationally recognized expert in underground utility engineering, stated, “The UK, with the Mapping the Underworld (MAP) project, has been in the forefront of addressing the challenges of locating and identifying underground facilities. TBE Group has been very active in the MTU project, and we believe that TBE’s international experience can greatly benefit the UK.” Mapping the Underworld (http://www.mappingtheunderworld.com) aims to assess the feasibility of techniques that can be used in a combined manner to determine the accurate location of underground utilities, as well as to assess the condition of buried assets without breaking the ground’s surface.

James  Lewis of South Yorks has been chosen to lead the UK effort. James has extensive international experience in utility detection & mapping, having worked on projects including Tokyo’s gas main replacement, updating utility records in Spain, and developing keyhole engineering capabilities in Chicago, He has also been responsible for the management of directional drilling projects in Vietnam and the Edinburgh tram utility mapping project. James has been involved in UK utility mapping projects since 1994, covering all aspects of project management from cost proposals through field work to delivery of client drawings. “Having seen the emergence of utility mapping as a project risk management tool, TBE and Subsurface Utility Engineering are the next logical step to bringing this aspect of civil engineering onto a more professional and accountable industry standard,” explains James. “TBE Group is a world leader in the Subsurface Utility Engineering field, and I will be a part of capitalizing on their specialized expertise to bring a more cost-effective and secure solution to buried infrastructure risks than is currently available in the UK.”
With an ever-increasing population density, the UK, in particular, faces daunting challenges in dealing with unknown or misidentified underground utilities and other facilities, some of which may be hundreds or thousands of years old. The cost of unknown subsurface utilities can be represented in construction delays, increased construction and repair costs, construction worker injuries and deaths, as well as interruptions to normal societal activities and the business economy.

In the UK alone, it is estimated that utility companies conduct 1.5 million excavations annually in order to install and maintain services. Recent research by UK Water Industry Research, Minimising Street Works Disruption: The Real Costs of Street Works to the Utility Industry and Society, suggests that the UK utility industry’s annual direct construction costs associated with street works are currently around £1.5 billion UK ($2.9 billion US), with third party damage costs of £150 million UK ($294 million US), while the social costs of street works (delays to road users; environmental damage; disruption to businesses; air pollution; etc.) may be as high as £5.5 billion UK per year ($10.8 billion US). Furthermore, it has been estimated that between 10% and 20% of utility work, in the UK, accounts for as much as 80% of the social costs.