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Technology Spotlight: Electronic White Lining via KMZ Files
It’s challenging to turn every digging project into a concise
and easy-to-understand set of marking instructions on a ticket. To better communicate the proposed area of excavation, the 811 industry is rolling out a solution referred to as “electronic white lining”. Electronic white lining means the application of
a visual indicator to a digital or virtual map marking the boundaries of the area of proposed excavation or the area of ongoing excavation. This language was added to Tennessee’s dig law in April of this year as an alternative to physical white lining, and Tennessee 811 already rolled out the first iteration of the technology. Excavators and
locators are now able to view
the area mapped on each locate request through the online ticket portal by searching for the ticket or by clicking on the hyperlinked ticket number in the email copy of a ticket.
As we work toward the next iteration of electronic white lining, we’re communicating with excavators and locators to better understand what they’d like to see and what innovative solutions they’re already using that we can learn from. A locator suggested that I reach out to GEOServices, LLC,
a geotechnical engineering,
materials testing, construction services and environmental
services firm, to check out a method they were using to visualize the scope of work on job sites they call in locate requests for.
Austin Kannapel, Technical Illustrator/ I.T., is the mastermind behind GEOServices’ approach to electronic white lining. He said their old method of pinpointing bore locations relied on measurements from roads, trees, and other fixed objects. This approach was hard to accurately lay out on paper
and took a lot of time to replicate
in the field. Austin learned civil and mechanical CAD through the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Hartsville, and he says his studies there
led to a broader interest in mapping, so he began to explore other options for establishing and sharing bore locations.
He eventually landed on a method where he measures off and labels bore locations in Google Earth with help from PARLAY, a third-party dataset that shows property lines and other parcel attributes. Once the bore locations are identified and labeled, Austin exports the data as a KMZ file and uploads it
to the company’s project management platform where it can be easily accessed as part of a bore package. Once it’s attached to the bore package, project managers and drilling contractors
can easily view the KMZ on their
Austin says he started sharing the
files with a locator from West Wilson Utility District, who also happened to be his friend, to see if it would help clarify what did or didn’t need to be marked. The locator from WWUD found the visual to be very helpful
and they were even able to identify potential conflicts before paint was ever put on the ground. Eventually, Austin started adding a note to his 811 tickets that advised all locators to send him
an email if they wanted a copy of the KMZ file or at least a screenshot of the same data. It didn’t take long before locators started reaching out, and he found that sharing the data cut down
on the number of calls he would get with questions about their scope of work. Even better, the proactive sharing of information speeds up the response time
on his locates, and he now finds that he usually has the responses he needs within about two days on average.
As Austin and I wrapped up, I asked him what Tennessee 811 could do to better utilize the
type of data that he currently shares with locators. He suggested that we could allow for attachments on locate requests so that his KMZ files could be sent directly to locators, or at least be available for download without the need for an email. That’s a great idea, and it’s a
good description of the next iteration that is planned for electronic white lining in Tennessee. With the rollout
of version four of our ticket-taking platform (hopefully in early 2024), we’ll be able to add attachments to tickets. We hope this will be a helpful tool to both excavators and locators, and we appreciate the Safe Digging Partners, like Austin, who have innovative ideas on how we can all work together to better coordinate work and avoid utility damages.
If you’d like to learn more about Austin’s approach to electronic white lining, email akannapel@geoservicesllc.com.
2023, Issue 4 Tennessee811 • 15
By Craig Ingram
Public Awareness Manager Tennessee811
smartphones to confirm and complete the necessary bores.
I asked Austin if they ever have trouble with the accuracy of GPS coordinates pulled from Google Earth or with a smartphone’s ability to get a person
to the same coordinates. He said
he recognizes that a dedicated data collector, like a Trimble unit, would be more accurate, but the combination of Google Earth and a smartphone
is usually good enough for their use case. He noted that GEOServices’ environmental consulting group is rolling out survey-grade equipment
to meet the level of precision that is required for that side of the business.