Two new standards for underground infrastructure imminent from the ASCE

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) first introduced the ASCE 38-02 Standard Guidelines for the Collection and Depiction of Existing Subsurface Utility Data in 2002 and it has become the model for many underground standards around the world.  Yesterday at the Canadian Underground Forum Jim Anspach, Chair of ASCE 38, mentioned  two new standards that will appear about the same time.  ASCE 38-21Standard Guideline for Investigating and Documenting Existing Utilities is an update to the 38-02 standard reflecting the advance in technologies for detecting, locating and documenting underground utilities and other infrastructure.  The other standard ASCE 75 Standard Guideline for Recording and Exchanging Utility Infrastructure Data, referred to as the utility as-constructed standard, provides guidelines for recording the location of newly installed or relocated underground infrastructure. The current version is currently implemented in Colorado to provide a guideline for new utility infrastructure installations.

Screenshot_2021-04-30 Standard Guideline for Recording and Exchanging Utility Infrastructure Data White Paper - as-built-st[...]

Explicit survey accuracies for quality levels C, B and A from the 2018 ASCE White Paper

ASCE 38-21 Standard Guideline for Investigating and Documenting Existing Utilities

Some things remain the same in the latest standard, for example, quality levels A, B, C, D and engineer and utility owner tasks.  But there are important differences.  Perhaps most important is that the standard is more prescriptive, defining specific performance goals that are required.  This is because it was felt that the older standard allowed practitioners to do the minimal and still say that they were ASCE 38-02 compliant. Another big change is explicit survey accuracies for quality levels C, B and A. 3D data has become an essential part of the new standard.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

View article by Geoff Zeiss

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*