Ordnance Survey digs deep to prevent costly cable strikes

Digital map of subterranean infrastructure promised in 2021 set to launch by year end

Ordnance Survey, the UK's official map maker, is seeking a tech supplier to help it obtain and manage data from utilities companies for a project that aims to avoid damage to subterranean infrastructure, which costs around £2.4 billion a year.

The OS is looking for assistance to run the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), providing a digital map of underground pipes and cables in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The government said the project would aid different groups that install, maintain, operate, and repair buried infrastructure.

Now in its beta phase, the NUAR program uses its Safe-Dig User Interface to help telecoms, gas, and water companies improve the efficiency and safety of underground works. It offers a digital map through which it aims to give planners and excavators standardized access to the data.

In a tender document, the OS says it is looking for a database and services provider to make it easier for owners of underground assets to document the specification of incoming data to the service and support information exchange. It is also looking for help building a harmonized data model and implementing a data transformation workflow and system in the specified cloud computing environment as part of a contract worth up to £6 million.

Estimates suggest there are 60,000 accidental strikes of underground infrastructure each year, leading to injury, project delays, and disruption to traffic and local economies, at a cost of around £2.4 billion a year.

In 2021, management consultancy Atkins won a £23 million contract to kick off the NUAR project with the aim of creating "a secure data exchange platform providing a comprehensive, trusted and secure digital map of where buried assets are located."

Previously, any organization wanting to dig up the road might have to contact all other parties that own or may have owned assets in the area, wait for each to respond, then compile information so it can be read and understood by workers.

"This process is slow, inefficient and makes inaccuracies leading to accidental damage more likely," the award notice noted.

NUAR is on track to be fully operational by the end of 2025, the government said last year. ®