PelicanCorp has partnered with Irish company Murphy Surveys to upgrade Ireland’s beforeUdig service, already powered by PelicanCorp’s OneCallAccess software, and to have the service adopted as Ireland’s nation service for the prevention of damage to underground infrastructure.
PelicanCorp said the upgraded service would give contractors better access to asset information to locate and identify underground utility assets prior to commencing works.
“With more data readily available via beforeUdig, the industry can improve damage prevention efforts with safer digging practices, less downtime and assuring the safety to the lives of those working on site,” the company said.
The current service enables users to submit their details via a website (www.beforeudig.ie), call up a map and mark on it the location of their planned excavation. They then get back an email detailing the buried infrastructure of utilities that are members of beforeUdig.
PelicanCorp says the future of the services is “supporting the advanced technology of beforeUdig that can increase the self-service online and mobile ticket entry methods, ensuring those seeking information have the greatest accessibility at all times.” It will launch the advanced service in Q4 of 2018.
Murphy Surveys’ Managing Director Niall Murphy said his company, through its partnership with PelicanCorp, was encouraging utility companies across Ireland to come together and streamline the process of obtaining location data.
“beforeUdig will modernise and speed up communication between the asset owner and the contractor helping to prevent the unnecessary risk of injury to the community and avoid service outages caused by damage to critical buried infrastructure all around the country,” he said.
“We are excited to partner with PelicanCorp, and together work with the Irish utility companies and our local authorities to promote safe digging practices and raise the standards of safety in Ireland.”
Jan-Willem Nijman, EMEA Sales Director at PelicanCorp, said PelicanCorp saw its partnership with Murphy Surveys as the next step in accelerating the damage prevention efforts across Ireland.
He pointed out that, with Ireland striving to become a hub for critical IT services like data centres, the protection of underground assets would be critical: highly reliable communications and power services — both carried on underground infrastructure – are essential to the data centre industry.
PelicanCorp CEO Duane Rodgers said Murphy’s had a strong commitment to the Irish market and the utility sector, and he believes this “will reinvigorate the level of activity and the need for Ireland to adopt beforeUdig.”
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