The study undertaken by the UK Government Geospatial Commission makes the economic case for improvements in access to data on the location of underground utilities assets through the development of a more centralised data access model – a National Underground Asset Register (NUAR).
All construction and infrastructure projects in the UK must source information on buried utility assets (cables, pipes, sewers etc.) in preparation for ground works. The asset data helps avoid costly damage for assets and improves safety for workers and the public. However, the process of sharing data is currently fragmented and inconsistent. Resolving issues with data sharing and quality is not straightforward as there are no direct incentives for businesses that own and use this information to improve their data at the scale required for a full solution. This case – where there is clear evidence of value to the UK economy – is an example of where government is able to centrally co-ordinate and invest upfront in wholescale data transformation. Government can also ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to address commercial and security concerns of efficient, digital data access.
A conservative estimate of the benefits of a national approach to digitalising underground asset data calculates GBP 30 worth of benefits for every GBP 1 invested. This is a very high rate of return for any government programme.
The authors found that there are benefits of the NUAR programme which are not currently quantifiable, such as more strategic improvements to street works coordination and subsurface planning.
The study uses a range of different methods for the benefits calculation, to account for the complexity of estimating savings across a vast number of organisations and projects. The starting point for the analysis is a comparison of NUAR to the current system for data access, looking at how it could change processes and reduce risks.
According to the study calculations, the estimated total monetised benefit of the NUAR programme is GBP 3.4 billion, which is GBP 347 million per year over ten years. This is based on three estimated benefits:
Utility asset strike savings – the value from these savings focuses on the total costs of utility strikes that could be avoided by the use of the NUAR to give increased data quality, format consistency and better data accessibility. Using academic research and industrial surveys to analyse direct costs (e.g. repairing damages), the authors estimated the average direct cost to be GBP 3,371 per strike. Indirect costs (e.g. project delays, extended road closures) were found to be, on average, 29 times larger than direct costs, so this scale factor was applied to estimate the full scale of utility strike costs. An industry statistic of 60,000 strikes per year on buried service pipes and cables was used as the basis of the strike reduction benefits. Based on the evidence from academic research and industrial surveys, and using His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) Green book discount rates, the authors of the paper estimated the economic costs of utility strikes to be, on average, GBP 2.4 billion per annum; composed of GBP 79 million per annum direct costs and GBP 2.31 billion per annum of indirect costs (2021 prices, present value), the latter established by applying the 29x ratio from academic research.
Reduced costs of data sharing and onsite efficiencies – the Geospatial Commission undertook a survey of the different sectors (e.g. water, gas etc) involved in excavation to understand the time and cost of gathering data, both following ‘business-as-usual’ processes and those that will be in place once NUAR is delivered. The findings were averaged and then scaled up to the wider sector. This data was also used to estimate savings from reducing the number of times unexpected underground assets were found on site. Only a subset of projects are delayed or abandoned due to funding unexpected assets so savings, whilst still significant, are much smaller than those derived from data gathering.