Recently, TBE Group, a recognized leader in Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), was approached by the American Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Georgia to present a workshop to industry members on the value of using SUE on construction projects. TBE's workshop was part of ACEC's day-long education program held in November at Mercer University in Macon.

SUE is a highly efficient, non-destructive process that combines geophysics, surveying and civil engineering to provide accurate mapping of existing underground activities. The workshop focused on the valuable benefits of using SUE, pointing out that the accurate information SUE provides contributes to informed design decisions and helps project owners avoid costly conflicts, damages, delays, service disruptions, redesigns, claims, or even serious injuries due to inaccurately plotted utility information. If a utility conflict does exist, project owners find out before any damage is done and can work to develop a viable alternative.

What's more, through project case studies, workshop participants learned that using SUE is cost effective, potentially reducing construction costs, utility relocation costs, and cost overruns. Experience has shown that relying on information from old plans and records regarding the location of underground utilities on any construction project may not be the wisest decision. In many cases, these subsurface facilities are not where the records say they are. What could be worse than serious flooding from a broken water main or hitting a gas line and causing a deadly explosion, all because of inaccurate utility information.

SUE provides accurate mapping of underground utilities to reduce the risk of utility conflicts during construction

Workshop attendees learned of SUEs four quality levels of information, from Quality Level D, where the information comes solely from existing utility records, to Quality Level A, where technology is used to determine the exact horizontal and vertical position of the underground utilities. These quality levels are really degrees of risk and are determined by the amount of information required.

The workshop also addressed the recently released American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) guidelines for collecting and depicting underground utility data. These guidelines are highly regarded as the definitive standard in the industry. A growing number of state Departments of Transportation (DOS), including Georgia DOT, are making efforts to comply with those guidelines.

Workshop attendees learned that the ASCE guidelines, which also classify the quality level of the underground utility data from Quality Level D (lowest) to Quality Level A( (highest, most complete and accurate information), are closely aligned with the principles of SUE. In fact, some state DOTs are already following these guidelines in their SUE programs and are, in essence, already complying with ASCE standards. (Other states need to modify their programs in order to comply.)

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) encourages the use of SUE on highway construction projects across the country. The workshop included information on the FHWA commissioned Purdue University study, which determined that project owners could save, on average, $4.62 for every dollar spent on SUE.

Closer to home, Tom Isley, PhD, PE, Buried Asset Management Institute (BAMI) City of Atlanta, also encourages project owners to use SUE.

SUE is a proven structured engineering approach to knowing the wheres and wherefores of the systems we have responsibility to manage. ASCE has standard guidelines for SUE best practices. It simply does not make sense to put society at risk when we have the tools to accurately locate and depict the location of our underground infrastructure. SUE is good business because the savings have been quantified and proven for several years.

The workshops final message was this: SUE does not cost money... it saves money. To avoid the costly results of unreliable underground utility information and to prevent being caught off guard by unexpected utility conflicts, project owners can reduce their risk by using SUE on their construction projects.

Credits
Author(s)
Randy Sanborn

Publication(s)
The Georgia Engineer. 
December/January 2003/4