en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Ontario public safety agency "Ontario One Call" (OOC) recently disclosed plans to build North America's first centralized digital system to integrate asset data from approximately 800 underground utility owners across the province. This underground utility mapping strategy addresses the surge in excavation activity resulting from the provincial government's $210 billion capital plan. By establishing a unified data submission and secure access portal, the project aims to resolve current bottlenecks caused by inconsistent asset data formats and inefficient approval processes among various entities.
As the statutory underground locator coordination agency, OOC was established in 1996. President and CEO Mitch Panciuk pointed out that the new system is modeled after the UK's National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). Unlike the voluntary principle in the UK, Ontario's system legally mandates owners to submit data, which is expected to significantly enhance the platform's completeness. This plan also requires residential developers to submit information on newly built pipelines to municipal authorities and simultaneously integrate it into this digital platform.
Currently, OOC has formally applied to the provincial government for $34.7 million in construction investment. Although the project has not yet been included in the latest fiscal budget, it has received joint endorsement from industry organizations including the Ontario Residential and Civil Construction Alliance, Kingston Utilities, and Enbridge Gas. The underground utility mapping strategy is expected to have a six-year implementation cycle, with the first three years dedicated to pilot validation in large, medium, and small municipalities and utility companies to optimize system performance based on actual measured data.
From an industry perspective, the establishment of this portal is expected to reduce pipeline location time from "days" to "seconds," significantly lowering the risk of delays in road maintenance and infrastructure projects. As a next step, OOC will collaborate with construction industry associations to urge municipalities to pass supporting motions, aiming to propel this province-wide underground utility mapping digital project, involving 800 facility owners, into the substantive construction phase.
This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com
