Challenge
Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) is a key player in Britain’s water and sewerage sector. Operating as Northumbrian Water in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and parts of North Yorkshire in the north-east of England, and as Essex & Suffolk Water in eastern England, NWG provides essential water and sewerage services to 4.2 million people. The water company prides itself on its customer service, ensuring the needs and wellbeing of its customers are at the forefront of its operations.
NWG was affected by challenges with digging up the ground safely and avoiding dangerous strikes. It was frustrated by inefficient data management relating to underground assets. There was no centralised system for NWG or other utility organisations to call upon that shared details about where pipes, cables and other underground infrastructure were located. Instead, all parties had to contact each other for individual plans of each other’s assets which took an average of six days to receive. Then a paper map pack was given to teams digging holes in the ground, which often-included plans of varying scale, creating even more challenges in accurately locating the assets.
In 2018 alone, Northumbrian Water spent over £1M repairing pipes that had been damaged by third parties, causing a large supply interruption affecting its customers and communities.*
Solution
NWG played a key role in conceiving NUAR at its Innovation Festival in 2018, off the back of a challenge to find ways to solve the cost of accidental strikes on underground assets. It was estimated these strikes set back the UK economy by £2.4bn a year. This challenge was also faced by other utility organisations, emphasising the need for a centralised system.
"This was an idea grown from a tiny seed sown at one of our early Innovation Festivals, and to watch how it has grown is absolutely astounding. By taking NUAR out into the ‘real world’, not only will it save the UK economy billions, and help to keep lives safe, but it will also help to create jobs which is an incredible benefit in itself."
Today, NUAR is a government digital service that provides secure, instant access to a standardised map of underground pipes and cables. Operated by Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Government, it shares buried infrastructure data for telecoms, energy, water, transport, local authorities and highways authorities.
From the outset, NWG strongly advocated for NUAR, believing in the benefits it could bring in terms of cost, safety and efficiency. Key leaders at NWG drove change through targeted communication and comprehensive training. Sessions were structured to explain the reasons for adopting NUAR and the improvements it would bring to its processes. Initial resistance from senior managers was mitigated by demonstrating NUAR’s benefits and involving them in the process.
Result
NUAR was integrated into NWG’s health and safety protocols and used when raising jobs that required digging. It provided team leaders with real-time digital maps for quick verification of underground assets, improving safety, efficiency and planning.
The immediate positive impacts included NUAR being easy to use and suitable for 24/7 operations. It reduced cable strikes and allowed employees to access information directly. Crews on the ground, saw NUAR as a ‘gamechanger’.
The detailed and clear information provided by NUAR positively affected various teams, from front-line workers to planners, engineers and contractors. Over 600 people at NWG now use the service.
It also demonstrated NUAR’s potential applicability to other organisations. Once they can see what NUAR has to offer and its benefits, there is no reason to not adopt the platform.
"NWG works with a broad network of contract partners, including ESH. A key challenge we face is that not all contract partners use NWG’s internal corporate systems directly. As a result, we often lack up-to-date visibility of the resources they deploy on our behalf, and historically these partners did not receive utility drawings through our internal systems. Instead, they were required to source essential information independently, introducing the possibility of inconsistency in the safety and efficiency of work undertaken for NWG. The introduction of NUAR has significantly improved this landscape. NUAR enables NWG to grant administrative access to contract partners, who can then manage their own user base. This ensures that every individual working on NWG assets—whether directly employed or contracted—has access to the same accurate and current asset information. By equipping our partners with NUAR, we ensure they can carry out their work with the highest level of safety, awareness and operational consistency. The system supports a shared, unified approach to safe digging practices, reducing risk, improving efficiency, and creating a more aligned working environment across all delivery partners."
Source* Interactive digital mapping