The AS5488 – Subsurface Utility Engineering upgrade addresses one of the key challenges on a construction site – accurate information and documentation on existing underground infrastructure.

The below article was first published by Wood & Grieve Engineers on 21 May 2019.

Following a three year journey, a committee overseeing an upgrade to the management of subsurface utilities are celebrating with the release of Australian Standard AS5488 – Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE).

The updated standard addresses one of the key challenges on a construction site – when existing underground utilities are not documented accurately, or information on existing infrastructure is simply not available.

Wood & Grieve Engineers’ Rob Sansbury has been involved with the upgrade of AS5488 since the beginning, canvassing Engineers Australia before getting Standards Australia involved for support.

“I feel a combination of being immensely proud and tremendously relieved, “ Rob said of the newly-released Standard. 

“To be honest, if someone had said to me three years ago that it was going to take three to four years to get it across the line, I’m not so sure I would have done it.

“But, this is kind of one of those altruistic things that when my engineering career ends, if my greatest input is contributing towards the upgrade of an Australian standard, I’ll feel very proud about it. I know this is a really fantastic document; now, it comes down to how people choose to use the information.”

Rob sat on the committee as Engineer Australia’s national representative, working alongside organisations including Australian Industry Group, Australian Institute of Mine Surveyors, Austroads, Dial Before You Dig, Energy Networks Australia, Geospatial Information & Technology Association, National Utility Locating Contractors Association, NBN Co, Roads Australia, SafeWork NSW, Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute, and Water Services Association of Australia.

“The first time the Standard came to the fore was in 2013, there wasn’t a Standard in Australia before then,” he said. 

“I was working on the Gold Coast Light Rail project and during my interaction with Queensland Transport Main Roads I learned that a standard was being put together. I was asked if I wanted to sit on a sub-committee to contribute to that standard. That was in 2011, with the standard released in 2013.

“However, in my opinion it was incomplete. There was critical information, particularly from a design engineering point of view, that was missing. Personally I felt there was some unfinished business to produce a more holistic standard that encompasses everything critical to subsurface utilities.”

Rob set to work petitioning industry advocacy groups, such as Engineers Australia, to expand and improve on the information in the original standard. 

“There are six Standards across the world now, Australia included. Before now all the other standards – from United States to Great Britain, also in Ecuador – all their Standards were far superior to ours. Australia just didn’t have a national standard that was robust enough,” he said.

“The content I’ve contributed towards the new standard is unashamedly biased from a design engineer’s perspective. What it’s intended to do is provide recommendations and information by which the management of subsurface utilities, or SUE, can be done better. There’s a range of items that Part 2 deals with that advises how design and utility engineers in a consulting space can better manage subsurface utilities.

“There’s no doubt that utility authorities, developers, constructors and contractors – really, the industry at large will develop benefit from this. At the end of the day, the Standard is creating a safer, lower risk, less expensive means by which to manage subsurface utilities.”

As the industry moves forward and technology continues to improve, Rob says it will see a natural evolution in the AS5488 document beyond the new 2019 version.

“As equipment becomes high tech and changes, and we have different means by which we can locate and design utilities, so the Standard will evolve,” he said.

Those who are interested in learning more about the upgraded Standard can do so now through a webinar delivered by Rob; Underground Utilities in Construction Projects.