TPi January 2020

Products & developments

join the best: 30March–03April 2020

Düsseldorf, Germany I www.tube.de

Putting underground infrastructure at risk 1.5 million projects out of an estimated total of four million took place last year without a detailed search for underground assets being completed. According to Digging Up Britain 2019, the report by LSBUD (Linesearch BeforeUdig), while a record 62 per cent of all UK excavation work, including highways projects, is now preceded by a thorough search for underground assets, such as pipes and cables, 38 per cent – the equivalent to one dig every 21 – seconds took place without a search. Richard Broome, managing director of LSBUD, said: “We have record numbers of searches going through our system, one every 12 seconds, and it is fantastic to see those working around the UK’s roads increasingly checking for any pipes or cables before they put a spade or digger in the ground. However, it is worrying that nearly four in ten projects are still being completed without a proper search, leaving workers and the UK’s utility infrastructure at risk.” According to the report, indirect costs such as worker ill- health or injuries caused by a strike, plus traffic disruption, the impact on the immediate neighbourhood, and loss of custom to local businesses make the true cost of an asset strike 29 times the direct cost; for every £1,000 of direct cost arising from a utility strike the true cost is £29,000. LSBUD’s study states that the risk of such expensive asset strikes is being exacerbated by the growing volume of emergency work taking place. It reports that emergency enquiries increased by 88 per cent last year, meaning that of the four million jobs completed nationally, 216,000 were emergency related. Mr Broome added: “This spike in emergency projects is worrying. If an asset isn’t registered with our portal, the firm doing the digging will need to deal with the asset owner directly and that can take up to 28 days. This time scale does not fit with the idea of an emergency, so corners may be cut, and assets struck due to the need for speed.” LSBUD provides a free-to-use online asset search facility, and its report shows that there were 2,585,862 searches made through its portal last year – a 14 per cent increase on the previous year – and as a result, almost a quarter of a million more potential asset strikes were averted. Of the searches, 360,000 related to highways projects, an increase of 18 per cent on the previous year. Almost four in ten (38 per cent) were for the installation of street furniture, 18 per cent related to road resurfacing, 13 per cent were for linear projects, 3 per cent for gully works and 1 per cent for traffic calming measures. Interestingly, 3 per cent of searches related to road/track construction projects, a 17 per cent decrease on the previous year. LSBUD www.linesearchbeforeudig.co.uk

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January 2020 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL Messe Düsseldorf GmbH P.O. Box 101006 _ 40001 Düsseldorf _ Germany Tel. +49 211 4560 01 _ Fax +49 211 4560 668 www.messe-duesseldorf.de

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