What began as a grassroots initiative that brought together network operators and local government agencies in the North East of England has evolved into the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), a national program supported by the Geospatial Commission to aggregate and share information about underground infrastructure for safer digging and improved construction efficiency. It has just been announced that NUAR is now entering the Build Phase of the project.

Background

It is estimated that accidental underground utility strikes costs the UK economy £2.4 billion every year. I have blogged previously about two pilots in the North East of England and in Central London that brought 40 utility and telecom network operators and local government agencies together to agree to share underground location data. The pilots focussed on safe digging and construction efficiency and were successful in fostering a spirit of collaboration among the participants and developing and implementing a prototype system for sharing underground utility location information. A top priority of the the Geospatial Commission, an agency of the UK government tasked with extracting more value from government geospatial data, it is planned is to complete the national implementation of NUAR across England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2024.

Build phase of NUAR

A competitive procurement round for NUAR was announced in May. The Geospatial Commission appointed Atkins to deliver the Build Phase of NUAR. This phase will involve building a production minimal viable product for the North East of England, Wales and London, then further developing it with the objective of rolling out a national implementation to the remaining regions of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Atkins will be collaborating with 1Spatial, Ordnance Survey, Geosplace, Connected Places Catapult and Ernst & Young to deliver this project..The Geospatial Commission will be working with the Welsh government, Tees Valley Combined Authority and Greater London Authority to deliver the initial program. (Scotland already has a system for sharing information about underground infrastructure.) The digital map will be built collaboratively by industry and government and will enable the efficient sharing of information about the location of underground gas, water, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure.