GTC improves planning efficiency and safer design with NUAR

GTC provides multi-utility networks for new construction developments across England, Scotland and Wales. Based in Suffolk and part of the wider BUUK Infrastructure Group which employs over 2,000 people, it connects more than three million homes and businesses and owns networks in gas, electricity, water, wastewater, fibre broadband and heat. GTC works with house builders to supply this ‘last mile’ utility infrastructure to residential sites, and for major mixed-use developments such as commercial and retail developments.

A critical part of GTC’s work is producing accurate feasibility studies for potential construction sites. It designs infrastructure plans specific to new developments that connect to existing power and water networks.

Due to the vast size of many of these sites, planners and engineers found themselves losing significant amounts of time hunting off-site for the most efficient route for connecting a development underground. Obtaining information from multiple asset owners about where their existing pipes and cables were located was slow and often incomplete. This risked excavating into locations congested with infrastructure and increased the danger of striking underground assets. Teams would walk around with multiple documents and maps with inconsistent scales and formats, increasing the time it took to find assets and align plans accurately.

GTC took part in a trial using the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). NUAR is a government digital service, operated by Ordnance Survey (OS), that provides instant access to a secure and standardised map of underground pipes and cables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Designed to improve the efficiency of the way buried infrastructure is installed, maintained, operated and repaired in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, NUAR provides secure access to data for over 390 asset owners from the public and private sectors. Bringing together details on 80% of all known underground infrastructure into a secure service with data in a standardised format and style, to augment existing safe digging practices.

GTC introduced a user champion model for its NUAR trial. This was rolled out internally among different teams, with advocates of NUAR who were keen to adopt the new technology. They then trained key decision-makers on how to use the platform.

NUAR helped GTC plan its works more accurately and identify potential problems under the ground much earlier on. This led to GTC being able to design more suitable routes into construction sites, because seeing infrastructure data in a standardised view made it easier to highlight areas underground to avoid.

The data contained within NUAR was richer than before, with supplementary information such as Network Rail data making decision-making easier and clearer compared to using older legacy systems. The NUAR service was more secure than relying on various logins for different systems to access utility information. Plus, being able to use a digital device or tablet rather than having to carry separate sheets of paper plans around on site proved much more efficient. Which is important given the Government’s target to deliver 1.5million new homes over five years, as achieving this will require fast and efficient systems.

It also made it easier to plan works on site before spades entered the ground.

Following the successful trial, GTC fully adopted the platform.