Starting this autumn, Espoo will be running a digital interface which provides operators with real-time data on the location of pre-installed pipes owned by the Public Works Department. The improved information flow will reduce excavation work, increase the use of existing pipes and decrease construction expenses.
It is a common situation in many municipalities and cities: just when the installation or repair work is done, and the cables and water pipes have been covered up again, it all has to be dug up again for some other reason.
Often the cause of this is poor communication between the city and the network owners. Information about existing basic infrastructure does not always reach all the parties of a project, particularly during the planning stage. Unnecessary and overlapping work always means extra expense. In addition, the traffic arrangements put in place during the work are a bother to residents and road users.
Espoo is a rapidly growing area, with new residential districts continuously developing. The city has averted the problem described above since the 1970s through pre-installing underground pipes during road construction projects for later use by different operators. Espoo’s cable location service maintains precise data about underground pipes, and the pre-installed pipes have also been mapped out. This data, however, does not always reach the operators and project implementers as effectively as it should.
This means that the final result in many places has still been like the situation described above: one operator’s excavator arrives on location soon after the previous one’s has left.
Clear savings through open information flow
More recently, this problem has been tackled by Juho Toijanaho, Real Estate Engineer for the City of Espoo. Last winter, he began to think about whether it would be possible to share with operators in digital form the data accumulated by the Public Works Department regarding the pre-installed pipes located in different parts of the city. In this way, the operators would always have the most up-to-date pipework data, and could thus avoid the problem of duplicated work.
“This interface provides network owners with a real-time tool which can help them greatly right from the planning phase. The service always contains the most up-to-date information on the location of pre-installed pipes, which helps with planning and prevents unnecessary work”, Toijanaho explains.
He points out that the service also seeks to promote the use of pre-installed pipes.
“They facilitate and speed up planning and reduce excavation work and the disruption that this causes. Also, the work itself progresses more smoothly”, he summarises.
Service to open next autumn
Over the summer, the open data service is still being constructed and tested. The goal is to open it to users during autumn 2019. A next step will be to construct a payment system for pipework based on the road maintenance category. This will facilitate, for example, the granting of pipe location permits by authorities. At the same time, it will also produce an up-to-date databank.
“All parties benefit from the service: the city, the operators and the residents. The work gets done quicker and more cost-efficiently. The construction also causes less disruption to residents and road users if there is less excavation work involved”, Toijanaho emphasises.
Toijanaho sees that this combination of benefits also constitutes a good reason why the upcoming interface is a joint construction project that is worthy of recognition.
“In addition, this project could, with certain limitations, be extended also to other municipalities that have access to similar data on pre-installed pipes.”