How SUE Data Typically is Used
The Federal Highway Administration encourages the use
of SUE on most highway projects. The agency offers the
following guidance for state agencies, engineers, and
designers regarding SUE:
• The highway agency assumes responsibility for taking
appropriate actions to consider and deal with utility
risks. On many small projects, where few subsurface
utilities are present, or where information about
subsurface utilities is believed to be generally accurate
and comprehensive, this will only involve making a
conscious decision to proceed with the project using
readily available information.
• On larger, more complex projects, the state highway
agency may elect to use a SUE provider to obtain expert
advice and to use available technologies to provide
better information. The engineer, when involved,
will advise the highway agency of utility risks and
recommend an appropriate quality level of utility data
(A, B, C, or D) for a given project area during project
planning and design. The highway agency will then
specify to the engineer the desired quality level of
utility data.
• The engineer will furnish the desired utility
quality level to the highway agency in
accordance with the standard of care and
will be responsible for negligent errors and/or
omissions in the utility data for the certified utility
quality level.
Source: Federal Highway Administration
Continued from page 10
“Preliminary design – or redesign, if necessary – can occur much more efficiently
and cost-effectively,” she said. “Also, the responsibility for damage caused
from utility strikes or last-minute relocations is increasingly falling on design
engineers in addition to contractors.
“It makes it much more critical to look at the data when an
engineer is doing their design, rather than waiting for
something to happen in the field during construction and
saying, ‘Oh, I should have moved that telephone line,’
” she said. “When you cut a telephone line, are you
cutting off the 911 system? Are you cutting off
somebody calling the hospital? Are you cutting
off a giant bank transaction? When you don’t
find that gas line, are you endangering
your worker?”
TAMPA, FLORIDA
The Beck Group hired Ayres
recently to locate utilities for
several projects, including
expansion work at Tampa
International Airport
and improvements at TECO
Peoples Gas’ Eastern Operation
Center in Tampa.
“We put together an Excavation Method
12│ TRENDS