Commercial Investment Real Estate March/April 2017 | Page 13

Unearthing Hidden Utilities So much for what is coming, but what about the hidden assets? If the underground infrastructure of a busy city is not adequately understood, it can affect the viability of a site and construc- tion schedules. Without careful, accurate verification of utility records, costs can mount. Utilities have a responsibility to maintain records of their bur- ied assets and to make the records available to developers. Each utility, however, has its own records and combining these is the first obstacle to overcome. However, when it comes to the decision about where to dig — where to actually break concrete and how far down to go — relying solely on the single line representation of a utility route on paper or electronic image may not be enough. A breach in a main water line is costly to repair, and a misplaced shovel through a high voltage cable is dangerous. Seeing Underground Technologies to see what is going on below the pavement and roadways are not new, but their complexity increases every day. Electromagnetic locators, cable avoidance tools, and signal generators have been around for many years, often providing a hand-held tool to check the position of cables or pipelines. Techniques using Ground Penetrating Radar provide a faster way to gather the necessary data. Mounting a Ground Penetrating Radar scanner on a trailer means a steady driving pace is all that’s needed to get a view of the services in place, saving the expense of road closures. Ground Penetrating Radar results still require a certain level of interpretation, and experienced surveyors will balance the radar results against other evidence before confirming the position of an underground feature. Does the radar coin- cide with the utility drawings? Is the coincidence of draw- ing and radar result within an acceptable range? Data can then be loaded directly into building information models and compared with the plans for new work. Understanding the location of buried assets will support design decisions while avoiding costly re-routing of utility services. In the end, development is all about the data. Increasingly sophisticated discovery tools are pushing out more data to pro- duce a digital picture of assets above and below ground. The data management, display, and rendering tools that support BIM need to be able to combine this data, supporting better planning and cost savings right from the early design stage. Christine Easterfield is principal consultant at Cambashi in Cambridge, England. Contact her at [email protected]. Congratulations to the newest CCIM Designees Coldwell Banker Commercial ® has the most CCIM designees and candidates of any commercial real estate company!* *Source: CCIM 2017 Daniel Bennett, CCIM Jes Prince, CCIM Coldwell Banker Commercial Upchurch Realty Athens, GA [phone] Coldwell Banker Commercial Arnold & Associates Beaumont, TX [phone] Scott Graf, CCIM Mary Street, CCIM Coldwell Banker Commercial TEC, REALTORS ® New Orleans, LA [phone] Coldwell Banker Commercial Advisors American Fork, UT [phone] cbcworldwide .com © 2017 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, dba Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, dba Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates fully supports the principles of the Equal Opportunity Act. Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated. Coldwell Banker Commercial and the Coldwell Banker Commercial Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, dba Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates. Each sales representative and broker is responsible for complying with any consumer disclosure laws or regulations. CCIM.COM March | April 2017 11