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The cheaper option also applies when it comes to maintenance and repair. Underground assets - gas, electricity, water, fibre optics - may be out of sight, but are always located under someone's real estate, could well cross or run side by side with other assets, and involve high risk and cost when excavating them for repairs or upgrades.

Add to that the fact that civil engineers have been laying down such assets for a hundred years or more and that the documentary evidence of their efforts is either lost or sketchy; and that even modern assets, once laid and tarmacced over a couple of times, may be difficult to locate, if they are made of plastic or fibre optics, and you have a situation that cries out for some high-tech solution.

Did you know that there are four levels, A to D, for the collection and depiction of subsurface data, the highest of which, A, is called 'Daylighting', the precise vertical and horizontal position of the undergound utility, along with the type, size, condition and, of course, material and other asset characteristics?

Such underground assets can be found using a number of methods: Passive RFiD (with or without GPS), GPS, geo-tagged photographs, engineering survey methods such as GPR and textual or documentary descriptions. Each system has its own validity and usefulness appropriate to the quality of information required. Less critical areas of infrastructure, for instance, could simply be recorded by geo-tagged photographs.

Besides keeping up-to-date records on the location and maintenance of assets, knowing about them has other benefits - the reduction of accidental damage during subsequent site work, minimising health and saftey risks for on-site workers and the disruption to local communities, the reduction of traffic congestion - and the increase in profitability of works via improved pre-site planning, more targeted excavations and fewer dry digs.

Here's another nice acronym for you - DIRT (Damage Information Reporting Tool), which recorded a 10% increase in underground utility damage between 2011 and 2012 in Canada and America.

ALTOSUE
There is very little that can be done about the legacy of pipes, cables and conduits left by our ancestors, if there is no evidence of its existence. New installations, however, and anything subsequently dug up, can be kept track of using the latest technology, which goes beyond merely recording the location of the asset, but links it to spatial data and other management systems to provide a whole-of-life record of its existence. Such a solution is provided by Altuity Solutiuons.

AltoSUE enables users to accurately tag and record attributes on installation, such as asset type, depth and material, capturing additional information via a photograph and then uploading and viewing the asset alongside others within complex underground networks on maps or site plans, reducing the risk of service strikes, while improving site safety.

Altuity Solutions is a cloud-based asset management software provider, which has just announced the availability of the new Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) solution. It uses highly accurate 3M Radio Frequency Identification (RFiD) markers, GPS and geo-tagged imaging, and makes invisible underground assets visible. The solution is targeted at owners, contractors and workers in the construction and utilities sector - or any organisation that lays underground assets that need to be accurately recorded before being handed over to a site owner.

The passive RFiD tags used are all the same type, operating on one frequency and eliminating complexity for onsite operators. The unique key of each tag is read and data about the asset recorded via Site-Trackâ„¢ operating on a tablet or smartphone that connects to AltoSUE. An RFiD locator enables the operator to get within a spade's width of the asset. Site-Track uses the RFiD's unique key to query AltoSUE - displaying information such as the asset's attributes, photographs and other associated records. Photographs taken at the time of installation or repair, prior to reinstatement, effectively 'open up' the ground beneath the operator's feet.

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