Home / Programme Management / Utilities Location and Protection Utilities Location and Protection SCIRT faced a mammoth task coordinating its huge work programme with utility companies with their own extraordinary repair requirements. The risks demanded a higher level of collaboration and planning than previously undertaken. SCIRT faced an extraordinary situation as it marshalled its people and resources for the biggest horizontal infrastructure repair programme in New Zealand history. How would it manage and coordinate consistently and safely its repairs of hundreds of kilometres of damaged underground wastewater, storm water and fresh water pipes with multiple other utilities similarly confronted with extraordinary repair programmes? The immense scale of SCIRT’s 700-plus projects all over the city multiplied the chances of service strikes of other companies’ networks and raised the potential for workers and the public being hurt or killed. One of SCIRT’s first initiatives was to set up a new position to coordinate with other utilities. The SCIRT utilities coordinator led the creation and documentation of detailed, prescribed processes for SCIRT teams and contractors to follow to locate and protect hidden, underground services. Refer to the attached documents describing how SCIRT developed national minimum standards and best practice guidelines for the detection and protection of underground utilities which have been adopted widely in New Zealand. Glossary terms NZUAG: New Zealand Utility Advisory Group GIS: Geographic Information System UDA: Utilities Design Approval ECI: Early Contractor Involvement GPR: Ground penetrating radar Tags:safetycoordinationutilitystrikeservice