A new report is warning 44% of all excavation work in the UK takes place without a thorough underground asset search, putting the UK’s critical utility infrastructure at constant risk of being accidentally damaged.

The report, Digging Up Britain by LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD), has revealed that despite a 27% increase in location-specific searches between 2016 and 2017, only 2.25 million of the estimated 4 million work projects which took place last year included a thorough search for assets such as pipes and cables which might be present underground.

While the 72 Members of LSBUD combine to make their assets available as easily as possible, many others don’t, leaving hundreds of thousands of kilometres of the UK’s pipes and cables exposed to a greater risk of strikes.

With only a small number of water companies making their asset information available through a collaborative portal, the report warns that water-related infrastructure is the most vulnerable of all the utility sectors. It points out that while the water sector requests the second largest volume of reports by sector and describes the service as “a key part of their safe-digging preparations” , the sector doesn’t yet share its asset data “as well as it might.”

While companies in four regions of the UK – Northumberland, Essex & Suffolk, Hafren Dyfrdwy and part of Severn Trent – provide details of their network of pipes through LSBUD, the vast majority of the sector is at huge risk of strikes.

Richard Broome, Managing Director of LSBUD, commented:

“Not only can digging without a clear understanding of what is beneath the ground put site workers at risk of injury, a strike can also result in significant costs for the asset owner both in terms of repair and downtime as well as damage to its brand reputation and customer perception. The water sector requests the second largest volume of reports by sector, so the service is a key part of their safe-digging preparations, but the sector doesn’t yet share its asset data as well as it might.

“As a result, it’s vital that comprehensive utility asset searches become recognised as standard practice when firms are planning and preparing for any works involving digging. Alongside this, all asset owners must protect their infrastructure by doing everything they can to make access to their data easy for those third parties that need it to work safely. It is only by doing both these things that we can manage and reduce the vulnerability of our national utility infrastructure.”

The highest volume of searches by sector came from firms working on behalf of telecoms companies, with just under 800,000 searches made during 2017. Water companies and their contractors generated the second highest volume of search enquiries during 2017. The six most prolific regional water suppliers requested details of underground assets on 523,043 occasions – 23% of all searches made last year.

Using LSBUD’s data to build an accurate picture of the UK’s construction activity, the report also shows that 80% of searches carried out were to inform utility work and 13% related to highways works. Government drives to increase housing provision and reduce flooding meant that searches ordered for housing projects rose by 34% in 2017, while there was also a 17% leap in work relating to watercourses.

Richard Broome concluded:

“The sheer volume of work taking place across the country means that the risk to our utility infrastructure is coming from all directions and asset owners cannot possibly keep track of all the work going on that might affect their infrastructure.

“The most effective way to mitigate this is by ensuring information about asset location is made available to as wide an audience as possible. “

Over 70 asset owners including the National Grid, UK Power Networks, WPD, SGN, Northumbrian Water and the majority of the major electricity, gas and fuel networks are registered with LSBUD, which provides a free to use online asset search facility.

Click here to download Digging Up Britain