PAS 128:2022 PDF Download

PAS 128:2022 is a standard that provides guidelines for accurately mapping underground utility networks. It is sponsored by the Institute of Civil Engineers and is a full revision of the 2014 edition.

The standard is applicable to a range of professionals, including surveyors, geophysicists, subsurface utility engineers, engineers, constructors, project managers, and utility owners. These individuals are responsible for recording information about underground utilities.

PAS 128 covers the requirements for detecting, verifying, and locating both existing and new underground utilities, including active, abandoned, redundant, or unknown utilities. It also specifies the importance of locating associated surface features, such as manhole covers and utility markers. The standard is applicable regardless of the location of these utilities, whether in urban or rural areas, or on private sites like hospitals or airfields.

The standard sets out the accuracy requirements for capturing data, the expected data quality, and a means of assessing and indicating the confidence that can be placed in the data. It covers various aspects such as project planning, scoping, desktop utility records search, detection, verification, location, and deliverables.

Using PAS 128 for underground utility detection provides several benefits. It enables more effective planning and safer execution of street works, civil works, ground works, and utility-based activities. It offers clarity, consistency, and accountability in data capture. It also helps indicate the presence or absence of underground utilities before further ground investigation and supports the detection, location, and avoidance of buried services during ground-breaking activities. Additionally, it ensures better-informed decisions, reduces conflicts, delays, unnecessary work, and damage to third-party assets and utility service disruptions, and improves asset modelling capabilities.

The major changes in the PAS 128:2022 revision include added guidance on training and qualifications of practitioners, updates on the application of post-processing in detection surveys, a new specification for buried utility detection and avoidance to support on-site permits to break ground, guidance on the accuracy of detection methods, and guidance on the technical factors dictating the effort required for a detection survey.