Verse 1
FmThere's
Fm7da
Fmta everywhere. The more that you can harness and use, the
Fm7better off we're going to
D#be.
Verse 2
G#maj7Yeah,
Fm7so w
G#maj7e're in the consulting engineering business an
D#d on
Cme of the things we do, we work
for
G#maj7public infrastructure, public state DOTs and municipalities.
And typically, as soon as a client of ours gets a project that they would like us to
design, the first thing we need to do is go out and actually collect existing data.
topographic features, property lines, and then probably the most challenging sometimes
G#can be
G#the existing utilities. The quality of the information is critical because an inaccurate
design locate can lead the designer down the wrong path. So what can transpire from that is we'll be
designing around the utilities that don't exist and we will find ourselves
designing the the project in direct conflict with with the utility if the
design locates are not accurate. A lot of times the the format of that stuff is
just paper maps, PDF maps, it's really outdated stuff so it can be really hit
or miss on the quality of that that information that we're getting. We have
some stuff that was hand sketches on an old plan that was done back in the 60s or 70s to things
that sometimes come in GIS shape files or things like that. I mean again the better the information
we have the more accurate our designs can be. The integrity of the data is always in question.
We're always questioning okay what's the accuracy of this, what's the source of it. The data is
power and more data we can collect on a project the better
F7products that we can
E7deliver the better we can serve our clients the more success our project is
E7going to have over the course of my almost 20 years experience in the
E7industry I've seen tremendous advancements in the way we collect data
E7to the way we use data back in the early years paper maps if if that today we've
Verse 2
E7We've got advanced GPS systems, we've got aerial mapping services, we've got all sorts
of things that can collect data for us.
And in turn, our software is much more capable now.
We can produce underground utilities and 3D
D#maps that we can visualize and
Ewalk through
ourselves to identify
F7conflicts.
You
D7thought you didn't have any conflicts, you get it in construction, you find there
is a conflict, there's no way to avoid it.
and then you have to call their utility company in to do some kind of quick relocation.
Well, that just extended your time frame however long that utility company is going to take to relocate that.
So they have to order materials, they have to figure out what they're doing to relocate that line to avoid that conflict.
So all that time, that's just extending the construction time frame
and the inconvenience to the traveling public and the adjacent businesses.
CmWhen we don't have good existing information,
G#particularly as it relates
Cmto the util
Gmities,
you know, it just, it can cause all sorts of havoc and delays.
And at the end of the day, our project is really servicing the same
G#customers that the
G#private utilities serve. We provide transportation, water, storm, sanitary infrastructure to citizens.
G#they provide telecommunication, gas, power, whatever that may be on their side, but we
G#service the same thing. Imagine any disruption or any uncoordinated conflict that may happen
G#because, you know, instead of a fiber optic cable being the size of my pinky, maybe it's a major,
G#major fiber optics. We had a mid-am electric line that was very critical and it was assumed to be
G#about four foot deep. Well, we actually got out there in the field and did some potholes on it,
Chorus
G#it ended up being you know between three and five foot deep kind of varying and
G#we made some you know general assumptions to try to fit our storm
G#through through there and it wouldn't end up working so it caused us some you
G#know headache to have to redesign some things to make all this work the design
G#locates were in the wrong place and we set the traffic signal where we thought
G#was avoiding the utility into direct conflict with the utility so we had two
G#options. One would be require the utility to relocate the facility or go back and redesign
G#our project at our cost again to avoid that utility. On three instances that we had examples
Bridge
G#related to, the redesign fees were approximately $10,000 to $15,000 of city staff costs due
Chorus
G#due to redesigning, resurveying, and the cost to relocate a utility will far exceed that
Verse 1
G#ten to fifteen thousand dollars of redesign.
G#We had one, we found a fiber optic cable out on the west side of town here.
G#It was one of those utilities that had been bought several times and things and passed
G#on and passed on. Nobody knew whose it was.
G#one of the field people actually called up a retired person that was fishing on a boat
G#and he knew everything about that cable and it was a dead cable but again it cost us downtime
G#nothing is more frustrating when you're sitting there at probably about eight to ten thousand
G#dollars a day with a sewer crew just in equipment and manpower and you find out three days later
it's a deadline that just cost somebody $30,000. It's important to identify the
correct software solutions that's going to absorb all the data. Data comes from
all over the place and the power and amount of data that's available today
comes from all over the place. It's different sizes, different shapes,
different formats and we need to identify the right solutions where we
can take advantage of all that data, pull it all into the same system, get
A#it to
A#7display it together to work together s
A#o we can we can co
A#7nsume it as engineers an
D#d use that t
A#hat
A#information to our advantage during the
A#7design process the design request system really does
address a lot of the utility conflicts and really the utility locations prior to us ever putting a
shovel in the ground or doing any real design work so that provides either the opportunity for the
designer to work around the existing utility or gives the utility plenty of time to relocate
if it's absolutely necessary. When we have good information up front, we actually start that utility coordination at
the very beginning of the project. So as we're laying out our preliminary designs, some projects it just becomes obvious that
Verse 5
there's going to have to be relocations.
So they can be doing those relocation designs at the same time that we're doing our designs
and it really creates a much smoother project. And actually they can get their relocations done
before our construction ever happens. That's the best situation.
CmThe DRS system
F7is key to
G#the way
Verse 2
G#things need to be done in the future. It allows everybody to ma
D#ke better de
Cmcisions with better
G#maj7information.
G#OneCall Concepts and Iowa OneCall
D#develop the design
Cmrequest system for
G#facility operators
G#and project designers to share data, sav
Fming t
A#ime and money in the pursuit
Fmof protecting
CmIowa's v
G#ital underground infrastru
D#cture.
CmIt's a conversation worth havi
G#ng.
Fm7Contact
G#maj7us
Fm7to le
Cm7arn more.
