1300 LOC888
1300 LOCATE Services Utility Damage Avoidance System
Utility Damage Avoidance System
Traditionally underground utilities have been surveyed during or after they have been put in the ground. Whilst this has been widely accepted as the means for quality assurance and record keeping, its ability to give absolute identification and accuracy has failed.

Unfortunately, records get lost, contractors take short cuts and changes occur during construction. In addition to these challenges, surveys have historitcally been conducted after the utilities have been put in the ground which leads to inaccurate information or the survey data is corrupted during pick-up and transfer which results in no survey information at all. All of these practices lead to in-accurate "As Constructed" information.
Damage Avoidance
Utility owners and contractors rely on our experience, technology and our expertise to prevent utilities from damage, so we rely heavily on the utility owners to provide us with the most accurate information possible to help us find their utilities and prevent critical infrastructure from damage.

Accurate As Constructed Information
To date, the systems we have universally adopted are Dial Before You Dig and Survey but with so much in-accurate information and abandoned utilities you still cannot be assured utilities won't be damaged.

Very few companies, consortiums, government bodies, surveyors, civil contractors or multi national builders keep an on going up to date data base of utility locations within the confines of their buildings or 'owned assets' and if they do, no one knows how to obtain this information when it is needed.

In the 2009-10 financial year, 1300LOCATE performed approx. 2100 utility locations, 1 in 3 (approx 700) were inside property boundaries (commercial included) out of the 700, 558 had no information, 141 had limited information and not 1 had complete accurate information.

The Importance of Accurate Information
One of Australia's largest telecommunications owners came to grief in 2008 when the main Fibre Optic route south of Brisbane was severed by a large excavator. The communications owner knew there was a direct laid fibre in the ground, they had their own plans (not very accurate) as well as DBYD, but the 1 thing they didn't have was Critical information such as depth, size and most important of all its exact location. Had they had this information on site or access to the information, it could have saved the company millions of dollars. This cost is measured in lost business for them, lost business for their customers, down time for their network and of course the insurance bill.

This is not the first time this has happened and it won't be the last.
Most major utility companies have come to grief at some stage over the last decade.

Some statistics from 1300LOCATE:
Out of 100 locations performed at any given time, approx 40% have inaccurate plans, approx 20% have undetectable utilities and approx 38% have some form of descepancy.

Alarming statistics for a developed country.

Location Intelligence
Location Intelligence is the capacity to organize and understand complex phenomena through the use of geographic relationships inherent in all information. By combining geographic- and location-related data with other business data, organizations can gain critical insights, make better decisions and optimize important processes and applications.

Location Intelligence offers organizations opportunities to streamline their business processes and customer relationships to improve performance and results.

Location Intelligence tools leverage a variety of data sources including aerial maps, geographic information systems (GIS), consumer demographics as well as a user's own customer records. Popularized by business to consumer (B2C) applications, location Intelligence is experiencing rapid acceptance as there is confirmation that the value of location intelligence may be regulated by established laws and ethics depending on the specific geographic entities and scale under which they are scrutinized.

Platform integration is another factor contributing to the growth, as companies can now integrate Location Intelligence directly into business operations.

The Marriage
1300LOCATE is passionate about the protection of our underground utilities and developing new and innovative ways to help maintain their integrity.

1300Locate has combined Radio Detection, (electronic locator which sends and receives frequencies), RfiD technology (radio frequency identification), Mobile Mapping (a GPS receiver for GIS data collection) and G.I.S (geographic information systems).

This powerful combination results in the ability to locate, programme, store and map in one process.

Utility Location Intelligence
The capacity to know at any given time the exact location of your utilities. The ability to extract and store critical utility information on site and in house. An intelligent database with remote access for as-constructed drawings. The ability to utilise accurate information for planning and design.

The end result:
  • Future planning and design around utilities will be more accurate.
  • Up to date and accurate utility data.
  • Massive cost saving on survey.
  • Automated, accurate and informative as-built drawings.
  • Field crews can access utility information on site.
  • Ability to positively ID and locate utilities quickly and accurately.
  • Quality Assurance, reduced inspection of contractors work.
  • Cost saving for maintenance contractor's time on site.
  • Remote usage capabilities.
  • Damage Avoidance, cost saving on damaged utilities.


1300Locate can help your company manage your underground utilities by improving your current system, installing and initiating a damage avoidance system (utility tracking), mapping your underground utilities and giving you the ability to automate an as-built at any given time and give absolute identification of utilities out in the field without the use of survey or ground engaging tools.