As the public safety authority responsible for operating a locate notification system and promoting safe digging, Ontario One Call (OOC) is laying the framework for a “first-of-its-kind in North America” centralized portal system.
The Ontario Underground Mapping Strategy would require all of the province’s approximately 800 underground utility owners to store their mapping data on that portal.
Details on how it would function and why it is needed were the focus of a seminar at the recent Good Roads conference in Toronto.
Ontario is confronted with numerous challenges in ensuring public safety and efficient infrastructure under the existing fragmented and inconsistent underground infrastructure mapping data system, the approximately 35 attendees were told.
As it stands now, Ontario’s underground infrastructure is owned by those 800 owners, each of whom store asset data in different systems and different formats, said OOC president and CEO Mitch Panciuk.
Not only is that fragmentation a drag on growth and productivity, it will become worse if changes aren’t implemented, especially in light of the Ontario government’s $210 billion 10-year capital plan.
“This rapid capital development will trigger an unprecedented volume of excavation and means more shovels in the ground than ever before,” said Panciuk, citing hospital, transit, highway, housing and energy projects.
One of the mandates of the budget is prioritizing “cutting red tape” through centralized digitalized permitting systems. But municipalities cannot digitalize their permitting approvals if infrastructure data remains unco-ordinated, the audience was told.
Many municipal planners, especially in smaller municipalities, are forced “to navigate siloed, outdated and/or undated manual underground infrastructure records.”
By centralizing infrastructure data, the Ontario Underground Mapping Strategy would remove inefficiencies and slowdowns that inflate the cost of road maintenance and other infrastructure projects. It would also protect construction workers, ensure public safety, and safeguard critical infrastructure from damage, said Panciuk.
Security portals would be incorporated into the system, whose features would include a data submission portal for underground utility operators to submit mapping data and a secure data access portal that would provide users with access tailored to user type.
It would also be continuous and ever-evolving.
For example, in Ontario, new home developers are required to submit underground utility information to municipalities and that information would be added to the mapping strategy, he says.
In the case of smaller municipalities that still rely on “hard cover maps and filing cabinets” mapping of their underground systems could gradually be added through requests for locates, says Panciuk.
Established in 1996, OOC is an agency constantly looking for improvements and that mission was the catalyst to conduct research on the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) in the United Kingdom, he said.
Managed by the Government Digital Service (GDS), the register is a digital map of underground pipes and cables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“Locates, which used to take six days, now takes six seconds,” says Panciuk who met with GDS officials this past March.
NUAR was the “inspiration” for the mapping strategy.
But the British agency doesn’t have the legislative power to compel data submission which OOC does possess.
But many construction industry associations are on board, said Panciuk.
The PowerPoint presentation shown to the Good Roads audience included a number of endorsements from groups such as the Ontario Sewer and Watermain Construction Association, the Residential and Civic Construction Alliance of Ontario, Utilities Kingston and Enbridge Gas.
Implementing the mapping strategy isn’t going to happen overnight and will require a $34.7 million investment from the province. A funding application was officially submitted by OOC earlier this year, but was not included in the budget.
“The province hasn’t said yes, but it hasn’t said no,” said Panciuk, who been conducting advocacy meetings with construction industry and municipal groups.
Municipalities are being asked to pass motions of support.
A six-year rollout is envisioned, with the first three years consisting of a pilot project with a cross section of small, medium and large municipalities and utilities to demonstrate viability and work through any unanticipated problems, he said.
