Wales & West using specialist GPS technology
Innovative GPS technology that can be used to capture gas pipe data is being used by Wales & West Utilities.
6th February 2018 by Networks
The gas pipeline and emergency service for Wales and the south West of England is the only gas distribution network in the UK to use the technology as part of its multi-million pound 30 year gas pipe investment programme.
Wales & West Utilities has worked with AMT-SYBEX and Leica Geosystems to build a bespoke, new mobile solution that uses high-precision GPS equipment to measure and map the exact location – to the centimetre, of each new pipe as it is laid, as well as capturing important metadata about valves, junctions and other components.
Beverley Robinson, Wales & West Utilities data records manager, said: “We’re investing £1.4m each week upgrading old metal gas pipes to new plastic ones, and as part of this programme we want to make sure we have a greater and more accurate understanding of where our pipes are located.
“This technology brings many benefits and we are delighted to be leading the way in the industry. Being able to accurately locate our pipes saves time for our engineers and back-office teams whilst high-precision GPS increases the accuracy of asset data and reduces the risk of errors. It is also means we can share data across the business quickly, and that future work on our network is safer and more efficient due to better location data being available.”
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