drain TRADER
urge everyone involved in road and highway projects to keep themomentumup and check for underground assets – every time.”
Highways Projects increase by 17 percent
Therewas a 17 percent jump in the amount of diggingwork on theUK’s highways last year, according to DiggingUpBritain 2020. The report by LSBUD, which provides a free to use online search facility for underground pipes and cables, reveals that therewere 421,42 searches through its portal relating to highways projects in
2019.This is the highest level ever recorded and means road projects nowaccount for15%of all the digging taking place in theUK. Construction companies, contractors, utilities, local authorities, agricultural businesses, and the general public all use the LSBUD portal to check what utilities are under the ground before they dig – to help prevent assets such as pipes and cables being struck. Arecord 2,832,027 enquirieswere registered on the collaborative portal in 2019, representing 71 percent of all diggingwork taking place in the UK. As such it provides a powerful barometer for the type of excavationwork being undertaken. In the case of the highways sectors, the DiggingUpBritain 2020 report shows there were 139, 231 street furniture projects and 70,336 searches relating to resurfacing, an 11 percent increase. Driveway projects increased by 29 percent to 1,166, while pure road installation projects jumped by 69 percent with 125 searches. Other road activities accounted for 10,140 projects, therewere 1,958 searches relating to traffic calming, gulleyworks totalled 12,902 andworks on highways reached 5,
518.The main decline was in linear projects cross country; these accounted for 7,689 searches, a decrease of 27 percent on the year before. Richard Broome,Managing Director of LSBUD, comments:“It’s interesting to see the volume and mix of excavationwork on theUK’s roads but what’s gratifying is thatwe have reached a ‘tipping point’in terms of safe digging – which is goodnews both for theUK’s underground utility networks, and thosewhodig near them. The sheer volume of datawe’re nowhandling suggests asset searching on the LSBUD portal has rapidly becomesecond nature for people. After all, a search enquirywas placed every 3.7 seconds during the typicalworking day! It’s nowa standard step in the vast majority of jobs, including a growing number of road and highways-related projects.” The Report suggests thatmuchof the increase in highways-related activity can be attributed
to theGovernment investing more than £100 million to fund roads across theUK.Over £25 billion is slated to be invested in the strategic road network between 2020 and 2025. DiggingUpBritain 2020 not only analyses the volumes but also the nature of the digging work taking place. It reports that‘emergency projects’increased by 59 percent on the previous year and 197 percent on two years ago with 316,922 searches deemed as urgent in 2019. This trend could present a challenge to those managing urgent road-related projects if they are dealing with water, telecoms, gas, and electricity companieswhoare not yet on the collaborative LSBUD portal. Whilst the portal delivers search results in minutes, it can take utility businesseswhoare handling enquiries themselves up to 28 days to provide information about their
networks.The increase in‘emergency’requests will put huge pressure on these timescales. Whilst highway projects accounted for 15
percent of the total amount of diggingwork, the majority is done on behalf of the telecoms sector; its contractors and operators completed 911,455 searches, 32 percent of the total in
2019.The water industry followed with 592,126 searches, accounting for 21 percent. Richard Broomeagain:“With the vast bulk of the UK’s digging activity being preceded by a search through our portal,we provide a fascinating insight not only into the type ofwork which is taking place and where it’s happening but also who’s doing it. Whatwe can say for this year is thatmany more projects involving theUK’s roads nowinvolve a detailed search before digging commences, which is good for the projects, and the safety of theirworkers, and the communities where they’re operating. After all, no firm wants to be responsible for causing flooding or cutting off the broadband – let alone hitting a gas pipe or an electricity cable! This iswhywe urge everyone involved in road and highway projects to keep themomentumup and check for underground assets – every time.”
An expert when you need one
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44 drain TRADER | September 2020 |
www.draintraderltd.com
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