Abstract:

The total cost of underground infrastructure damage in Canada during excavation work is estimated to be over $1 billion dollars annually. The primary cause of these damage incidents is the lack of reliable information on the location and other information about buried utilities and other infrastructure. The Canadian Underground Infrastructure Register project is intended to improve the current damage prevention process by providing access to reliable data to all stakeholders and by developing a mechanism for continuous improvement in the quality of that data. The immediate goal of the register is to reduce underground utility damage during construction in Canada.  In the longer term it represents the first step toward the development of a Canadian subsurface digital twin.

Goal: 

To communicate the need for developing a digital twin to improve the damage prevention process in Canada, the mechanism to build that digital twin, and the benefits that access to the data provides to owners, designers, SUE firms, and locators.  The discussion will also to relate the benefits that will accrue to excavators and society in general in terms of safety, environmental integrity, and economic benefits.