Case Study: Supporting future district heating installation in Bristol with non-intrusive GPR surveying

Published on 26 July 2024 at 14:51

As part of an ongoing district heating project around Bristol, our client required a PAS128 Utility Survey and topographical survey to be conducted on the roads and footpaths within our survey boundary. The survey data will be used by a design team, to establish the route for the new district heating infrastructure.

Utility/GPR surveys locate and map underground utilities services and are essentials to any-preconstruction works to minimise risk. The survey was conducted by our specialist underground surveying team.

The topographical survey provides a detailed as-built plan of the area that we can overlay the utility data on.

Prior to our site visit careful planning had to be considered where we had to arrange a traffic management strategy and had to be mindful of various local factors that may be effected by our works, In summary due to the site being a busy traffic route for both vehicles and pedestrians and ensuring we didn’t cause local stakeholders any disruption when working in the adjacent highway or footpaths, We took the relevant steps to proceed with these works at night reducing the disruption to all mentioned above and maintaining a safer environment for both the surveyors involved in the project and the public requiring access via the work area.

Various utility tracing methods were used, inclusive of cable avoidance tools, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). Using these tools allowed the team involved to follow the clients’ specifications and ensuring there is no deviation from the PAS128 guidelines and company processes.

Following completion of the onsite works, we began post processing our survey data, the use of IQ Maps allows us to study the GPR data carefully to aid us in producing the final deliverables to our client in the form of both 3D and 2D Cad plans.

This project follows a PAS 128 standard. This standard gives the best practices for collecting utility data, from site works to the processing stages it clearly helps utility surveying professionals follow a clear process and allows clients to specify survey details early on, ensuring transparency.

PAS128 ensures clarity, consistency, confidence in results and standardises deliverables.