June 24, 2002 -- Utility vendors TelDig Systems and Tadpole-Cartesia recently jointly announced plans to build new software that could help utilities save millions of dollars each year from underground excavation accidents.
Utilities lose millions of dollars each year from underground accidents due to the lack of accurate asset information available to field workers. "A nightmare" is how the Skokie public works director described one road construction project on a village board.
"Gas mains were struck twice and water mains damaged 19 times as part of one street project. Much of the damage was the result of shortcomings in records, which did not show the existence of many of the lines that were hit. The village will have to pay the repair costs. Contractors will be billed for damages."
Skokie's experience illustrates a growing nationwide problem. According to the Office of Pipeline Safety, Hazardous Pipeline Operators alone experienced 3,035 accidents in underground operations from 1986 through 2001, which accounted for property damage in excess of $768 million.
During the same period, Natural Gas Pipeline Operators experienced 1,287 incidents, which caused property damage in excess of $285 million. Factor in direct and indirect losses from cable, electrical distribution, and water related operations, and the scale of the problem surpasses Skokie's "nightmare."
One way to prevent such damage involves the use of One Call Centers all over North America. These call centers receive and forward locate requests to local utilities for field intervention.
Optimizing crew interventions by screening and sending validated locate requests is a first way for Call Centers to reduce costs using AM/FM or GIS data. The second is to provide utilities with detailed mapping of buried infrastructure in the field, in turn allowing field workers to provide excavators with the best possible information.
Under terms of an alliance, TelDig Systems will embed Tadpole's field mapping software into its utility software. Its next generation, GIS-enriched solution scheduled for release this summer into TelDig's customer base of One Call Centers, utilities and contract locators across North America will provide them with the first, fully automated, on-line "locate ticket" damage prevention process.
The new solution will allow office operators of TelDig Utility Suite, and field workers with TelDig Mobile, to view, send, edit, copy, paste, and integrate AM/FM or GIS data in the entire locate process.
TelDig Systems' existing products are widely-deployed and used throughout North America by telephone and gas utilities and contract locating companies.
About Tadpole-Cartesia
Tadpole-Cartesia, a software business unit of Tadpole Technology plc, is a specialist in the deployment of enterprise-class mobile information systems in the world's utilities, telecommunications and public service industries, and is a field solutions provider for ESRI-based technology.
In addition to ESRI-based solutions, the company offers a unique range of mobile business solutions known under the Conic brand that support both Windows and Java platforms and open new vistas for better management and productivity of field workers, improve customer service, reduce operational costs, and enable user industries to fully capitalize their investments in corporate GIS and CAD data. For further information, visit www.tadpole.com
About TelDig Systems Inc.
Founded in 1994, TelDig Systems, partly owned by gas distributor Gaz Metropolitain, is a provider of damage prevention solutions for buried infrastructure. TelDig Systems develops, markets and supports damage prevention software tools to manage underground plant locating requests for One Call Centers, utilities and contract locators.
TelDig software covers all aspects of the buried utility locate request lifecycle with unique technology that optimizes time and money of the resources involved. For further information, visit http://www.teldig.com.
