This is one in a series of Traffic Advisory Leaflets providing guidance on methods of working and innovative techniques aimed at reducing traffic congestion due to road works. The series is aimed at utility companies, highway authorities, contractors, equipment suppliers and others involved in road (or street) works. Each leaflet in this series is based on research carried out by TRL Limited on behalf of the Department for Transport and Transport for London. This leaflet provides advice on mapping underground assets to locate and identify buried pipes and cables. Underground asset mapping systems rely on databases that can hold considerable amounts of information tied in to the location of the assets, such as maintenance history, road construction type, etc. The leaflet also covers the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) marker tags that can be fixed to assets during installation or when exposed by excavation. Accurate mapping of all assets within a highway should allow for better planning and more efficient repair and replacement of the assets. This, in turn reduces the time works occupy the highway and the attendant congestion. It also reduces the risk of equipment strikes. Comprehensive and reliable data associated with assets can make it possible to carry out targeted excavation as opposed to the practice of excavating simply to find out where the assets are, which often results in ‘dry digs’. Section 79 of the NRSWA places a duty on undertakers to record the location and type of their apparatus while Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 3217 The Street Works (Records) (England) Regulations 2002 prescribes, among other things, the level of accuracy required. However, the legislative requirements are relatively basic and it is becoming increasingly common for more detailed methods of mapping underground assets to be used. There is a variety of methods of recording assets available, and costs tend to reflect the level of detail involved. As such undertakers need to take a view on how much they wish to spend on underground mapping and what they want to map. (Author/publisher)
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