Congratulations to Atkins, the company that has been appointed by the government’s Geospatial Commission to help create a digital map of underground pipes and cables throughout the UK.
The map will be known as the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) and is being developed by Atkins alongside mapping agency Ordnance Survey and geospatial data management leaders 1Spatial.
Designed to revolutionise construction and development across the country, the Geospatial Commission NUAR map release states that, “The economic cost of accidental strikes on underground pipes and cables is estimated to be £2.4 billion per year and one cause is inaccurate information on the location of buried assets. Once operational, NUAR is expected to deliver around £350 million per year in benefits by avoiding accidental asset strikes, improving the efficiency of works and better data sharing.”
The project is about to enter its build stage, a process estimated to run for three years. This is a large and ambitious undertaking, but the geospatial industry is highly progressive when it comes to the development and adoption of technology for field data capture and verification and the NUAR project will no doubt make excellent use of these developments.
Here at KOREC we can’t help but make three suggestions for technology that could be beneficial on a project of this nature:
Mobile Mapping + GPR Survey
The KOREC Professional Services team has just completed a roads project that saw them carry out a Trimble MX9 vehicle mounted mobile mapping survey at the same time as an underground mapping survey using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). This dual-purpose survey was completed with a single pass (reducing emissions and keeping boots off the tarmac) and produced a data set suitable for many applications from asset management to road conditions surveys to pre site risk analysis.
The Trimble® MX50, offered for sale by KOREC, is a practical field-to-finish mobile mapping solution for asset management, mapping, and road maintenance. The system delivers a very accurate point cloud of the environment along with complementary immersive imagery providing substantial gains in productivity in areas such highway management, utilities and local government.
Augmented reality
Imagine if you could see things that are hidden or that don’t actually exist yet. Trimble® SiteVision™ brings geospatial data to life so you can easily visualise, explore and understand complex information with unrivalled centimetre accuracy, right from your mobile device.
Ideal for use before and after in an application such as the NUAR project, SiteVision is proven technology used for the visualisation of underground assets by organisations such as Balfour Beatty Plc, O’Brien Contractors and the A14 Integrated Delivery Team.
Trimble SiteVision couldn’t’ be easier to use and is highly portable for use on site.
Centimetre accurate, low-cost positioning for large workforces
If you have a large workforce that requires centimetre positions to support its main line of work, then Trimble Catalyst provides an excellent way of enabling a varied workforce of non-surveyors to achieve the high accuracy that utility positioning requires, but without the costs of a high-end survey grade GNSS.
Trimble Catalyst is a revolutionary, GNSS concept delivering positioning as a service to mobile devices. It turns your existing Android or iOS device into a precision mapping, navigation and measurement tool that you can use with any location enabled app or service including KOREC Capture and Esri FieldMaps.
The cost of the Catalyst hardware has been kept low at just £300 per receiver and subscriptions come in a range of choices depending on the number of licenses required and hours used. However, Catalyst is more suitable for some users than others and our business case post on this is well worth a visit.
It’s also the perfect partner for our KOREC Capture Utility module for field data capture specific to the utilities sector.
If you’d like to find out more about any of these technologies, please contact:
Call UK Sales: 0345 603 1214
Call Ireland Sales: 01 456 4702
For anything else, view our contact page.
How KOREC are powering a Guinness World Record breaking attempt
Ian Williams is a man on a mission. Over the weekend of 7-8th August, he’ll be attempting to smash the Guinness World Record for the furthest distance travelled in a go kart in 24 hours, at the Teesside Autodrome British 24hr Challenge.
The current record stands at 945 miles, while Ian hopes to smash through the 1,000 mile (1600km) barrier – as well as raising £15,000 for charity in the process.
So how do you go about planning such an exhausting mission? Well first things first, Ian (not to mention Guinness) needed to know the precise distance of the track to be driven – which is where KOREC come in.
Whilst the official track length is stated as 2.1km, Ian needed a precise measurement – both to satisfy the stringent demands of Guinness, and to pace his race.
Ian searched around local survey companies before he was advised that KOREC might be able to assist with obtaining an accurate track measurement. Never ones to shy away from a challenge, we immediately knew this was a job for the MX9 and the Professional Services team.
Flash forward to 1st July, and our team met with Ian trackside. It took a matter of minutes to drive the race-day circuit layout in the MX9 scanning vehicle, capturing millions of measurements of data points of both track position, and elevation.
The data was processed back in the office, producing a dense 3D point cloud of the circuit, allowing for a centre-line to be produced – which came in at 1.64km in distance – almost half a kilometre shorter than the stated distance.
0.5km may not seem much to you or me, but when you’re planning to drive over 1000 miles, it works out at an additional 214 laps of the circuit – knowledge that means the difference between success and failure.
As well as providing these crucial measurements, the Professional Services team have generated beautiful 3D visualisations of the circuit, which have been incorporated into Ian’s marketing video – a vital piece of promotion for his charity drive.
Ian is hoping that his record attempt will raise £5000 each for his three chosen charities – Shelter, Papyrus (prevention of young suicide) and the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance.
So how is Ian gearing up over these final weeks for this massive challenge?
“I’ll be focussing on building up my stamina by taking part in track days. I’m also conditioning my neck muscles, as they’ll be coping with around 70 tonnes of pressure over the 24-hour period. I’ve also upped my water intake, ensuring I am well hydrated, and getting used to a liquid diet”
(Ian won’t be consuming food during the attempt)
Whilst this is a solo attempt, Ian is far from alone. Upwards of 100 other racers will be on the circuit, with Ian hoping his kart’s bright livery will help him stand out from the crowd. He’s also got the support of the Haase UK Kart team, who have learnt him the kart, and his very understanding partner Alyona!
All of us at KOREC wish Ian the very best of luck in his challenge!
If you’d like to support Ian’s chosen charities, you can do so via his Justgiving page; https://www.justgiving.com/team/British24hoursolo
Article Links
Teesside Autodrome – British 24hr Challenge
Guinness World Records – Current World Record
Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance
‘A’ road survey completed in safety, 20 times faster!
Out now, the July/August issue features a great story on how Anthony Lawton, Director at Academy Geomatics tackled a complex road survey using mobile mapping. KOREC Professional Services specialises in collecting and processing high quality data using the Trimble MX9 Mobile Mapping System.
or the full KOREC case study here
Out now is our double summer issue of Mensura!
- Three new case studies
- GEO Business round-up
- Want one of our SX10 models? – Five left!
- Apply for KOREC Customer Experiences
- New releases from Trimble and Parrot
View the pdf here
Exciting times at KOREC – we’ve long since brought you ground breaking technology that sets KOREC customers apart from the opposition and now we’re supporting these world class products with an even higher level of service through our new ‘wraparound care’. This new level of service and support will be delivered through the launch of KOREC Professional Services and an enriched KOREC Hire Service.
See our new announcement below or download the pdf here.
Our aim is to bring you great technology, made more accessible through a choice of purchase hire or as a service, backed up by expert care and consultancy by KOREC partnering or working with you as much or as little as you require,
Here’s a taste of what we’ve got on offer!
New level of ‘wraparound services’ for KOREC customers
KOREC is offering a new level of service which will enable it to partner with customers from the outset, supporting them in winning more business from the tendering process through to field data collection and the final provision of intelligent, timely deliverables.
This new level of service will provide KOREC customers with an approach designed to supply solutions to problems rather than just products. This will include providing customers with cost-effective access to sector expertise, generally not available in-house, and ground breaking technology principally regarded as outside a capital outlay.
The provision of this service will be through KOREC Professional Services (specialising in mobile mapping surveys) and an enriched KOREC Hire Service backed up by dedicated field and office support.
Professional Services: Providing all survey and engineering companies, from sole operators to national businesses, with a low risk, no outlay method of adding mobile mapping to their portfolio. Key benefits include:
- Expansion of your business by offering clients mobile mapping surveys, and all their benefits, without the need for a hefty capital outlay or training costs.
- Access to the full range of Trimble field to finish mobile mapping solutions including the MX2, MX7, and new generation MX9.
- Safe delivery of highway projects faster and without the need for traffic management or road closures
- Access to expert advice, services and consultancy at every stage of a project through data capture, processing, hosting and delivery.
- Quality assured deliverables from KOREC’s experienced mobile mapping team.
Mark Reid, KOREC Professional Services Director said, “We are in a new era of customer care and customer expectation which is best met with an approach that supplies solutions rather than just products. Key to KOREC Professional Services is the idea of working or partnering with the customer to identify their project requirements and develop the most appropriate solution which we will then help them implement either through service, hire or purchase. In short, we want to work with our customers more closely to ensure that they get access to the best solutions available to deliver their projects successfully, first time.”
KOREC Hire: KOREC is equipped to offer a vast range of solutions for hire from entry level construction tools to leading-edge technology including scanning, plug and play monitoring systems, drones and rail track measurement devices.
Key benefits include:
- Dedicated field and office support for every instrument
- Complimentary, comprehensive ‘technical handover’ for instrument familiarisation
- Fast delivery – next day is the norm
- Well stocked fleet – fast reaction to short notice requests
- Cost-effective access to new technology and instruments that can expand a business’s offering
Mark Crawford, KOREC, Strategic Business Manager for Hire, said “Support is key to what we do at KOREC and our hire fleet is backed up by a trained, field and office support team with a single aim – to keep our customers productive in the field. The breadth of KOREC’s hire offering allows us to resolve the daily challenges our customers face, whether that is the need for a laser, total station or GPS on short and long term projects, a ‘Plug and Play’ multi-environment monitoring system to deploy and initialise quickly on site or taking the next step and considering a Trimble SX10 Scanning Total Station or the GEDO IMS system to increase productivity within an already demanding delivery plan.”
