SUBSURFACE Marker Ball Installation and Information Retention at INL

David Inskeep/Shawn Williams

2014 EFCOG/DOE Electrical Safety WorkshopNREL- Golden, CO

A SUBSURFACE LOCATE CONTINUES TO PROVE THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEANS OF PREVENTING UNDERGROUND EXCAVATION DAMAGES. THE COMMON GROUND ALLIANCE (CGA) HAS REPORTED FOR 2011 AND 2012 THAT WHEN LOCATES WERE PERFORMED THAT 99% WERE COMPLETED WITHOUT ANY INCIDENTS. THAT’S LESS THAN 1% OF UNDERGROUND EXCAVATIONS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY A LOCATE RESULTED IN DAMAGES.

FOR 2012 OF THE MORE THAN 232,000 REPORTED EVENTS THAT INCLUDED FACILITY DAMAGES, ALMOST 60,000 WERE NOT PRECEDED BY A SUBSURFACE LOCATE (26%). ASSUMING A GREATER THAN 99% EFFECTIVENESS FOR PERFORMED LOCATES, HAD LOCATES BEEN PERFORMED FOR THE 60,000 HITS THERE MAY HAVE BEEN 59,400 LESS HITS. KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE STATISTICS ONLY REFLECT REPORTED HITS.

SUBSURFACE INVESTIGATIONS

16,381 ELECTRICAL HITS, 86,727 TELECOMM. HITSTOTAL AVERAGE DAILY HITS: 638IF ALL HITS WERE REPORTED THE NUMBER OF HITS WOULD BE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER

SUBSURFACE INVESTIGATIONSType of Facility OperationSame as 1, segmented by fac_damaged.

CGA DIRT: Part CType of Facility Operation

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2012% of

Known% of

Known% of

Known% of

Known% of

KnownEvents Events Events Events Events

% of Known

Events

Cable TV 3.8% 3.7% 3.6% 2.4% 8.8% 4,066 4,543 3,677 2,172 16,143 8.1% 17,037 Electric 7.8% 5.2% 11.9% 4.3% 7.0% 8,470 6,287 12,325 3,985 12,902 7.8% 16,381 Liquid pipeline 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 235 342 312 392 403 0.3% 548 Natural gas 48.0% 51.8% 53.5% 60.5% 42.9% 51,905 63,019 55,304 55,844 79,001 41.3% 86,491 Sewer 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 272 228 273 161 330 0.1% 285 Steam 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 11 7 4 5 6 0.0% 7 Telecomm. 38.7% 37.6% 29.4% 31.0% 39.6% 41,771 45,732 30,389 28,645 72,928 41.4% 86,727 Water 1.2% 1.3% 1.0% 1.2% 1.3% 1,295 1,532 1,022 1,069 2,317 0.9% 1,802 Events with known data 89.0% 89.7% 89.7% 81.7% 88.6% 108,025 121,690 103,306 92,273 184,030 89.9% 209,278 DNC, Unknown / Other 11.0% 10.3% 10.3% 18.3% 11.4% 13,309 13,931 11,926 20,644 23,749 10.1% 23,439 Total events submitted 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 121,334 135,621 115,232 112,917 207,779 100.0% 232,717

Overview of Newer Technologies

• Multi-Channel GPR Array

• Wireless GPR for surface penetrations

• Developing EM 61 Array

MALA MIRA MULTI-CHANNEL GPR

GSSI concrete scanning GPR

EM 61 ARRAY

Photo: Courtesy of ZAPATA Inc.

MARKER BALLS

MARKER BALLS

• WHAT ARE THEY?

• 4 inch plastic ball or 12 inch plate built with a programmable chip inside.

• Liquid inside is reclaimed water and is used to ensure that chip is level and can be correctly read.

• Each ball has a unique serial number provided by the factory.

• Can be installed up to 7 feet deep for the plates and 4 feet with the ball.

Advantages of Marker Ball

• Allows for safer excavations (knowing what’s below)

• Aids in planning of maintenance/construction projects

• Reduces uncertainties during design phase

• Helps lower cost of excavations during maintenance/construction work

• Overall better configuration management of what is buried.

MARKER BALLS

• Recommended placement • • All ‘Items of Plant’ that are assigned unique reference numbers on facility

maps and records.

• • Handholes

• • Buried splices of all types

• • Buried transformers

• • Repair points

• • Buried service drops - Service stubs

• • Slack loops

• • Depth changes

• • Laterals

• • Bends - Changes of direction, arcs

• • Conduit stubs

.

MARKER BALLS

• Encasement ends - Conduit ends of horizontally directional drilled (HDD) facilities

• Path of deep facilities installed using trenchless (HDD) construction technology

• Manhole covers

• Water crossings

• Utility crossings – locations where the cable crosses over or under other utilities.

• Change in utility material or size

• Using the GPS interface on the 3M™ Dynatel™ Locator model 1420 and 2200M-ID series will also provide positive verification of marker placement during construction and direct data import capability to leading industry standard GIS systems for electronic map updating

MARKER BALL PLACEMENT

Installed Marker Plate

DATA MANAGEMENT

• Establish a plan for saving data

• Develop process to make data available

• Develop an easy to use interface for customer

• Design a process that requires consistent data collection techniques and questions

• INL uses Trimble GEO XH 6000 with camera capabilities

• Developed i-MAP application that combines subsurface data with other INL specific information

Trimble GEO XH 6000

LOGGING MARKER BALLS

LOGGING MARKER BALLS

LOGGING MARKER BALLS

INL i-MAP

BOUNDARIES OF INL DESERT

OVERVIEW OF FACILITY

DATA COLLECTED

MARKER BALL INSTALLATION

Overview Video

SUMMARY

• Benefits

– Safer Excavations

– Better Design for Construction Projects

– Used in Planning Process for Maintenance

– Captures New and Historical Data

Questions?