The governments NUAR is a digital map detailing all of the underground pipes and cabling.
The first phase has now gone live April 2023, which covers the underground pipe and cable data in the following areas:
- Northeast England
- Wales
- London
Why do we need this?
It is estimated there are around 4 million kilometres of buried pipes and cables in the UK.
A hole is dug every 7 seconds to install, fix, maintain or repair these to keep our utilities running.
Roughly 1 in 65 holes dug results in an accident, so that’s approx. 60,000 a year, costing £2.4 billion to the economy.
There are 650+ owners of these pipes and cables (including energy, water, telecommunications).
As you will probably be aware from your Street Works, there is no standardisation. Multiple organisations have to be contacted for each dig for information on formats and scales and all with different timelines. Therefore making it a complex process to install, maintain, repair and work around buried pipes and cables.
So what does NUAR do?
NUAR creates a single, comprehensive data sharing platform on the location and condition of underground pipes and cables.
This should:
- streamline data sharing
- reduce risk of accidents
- promote efficient management and maintenance
The digital map will revolutionise the way we manage our underground services.
The future
The government hopes NUAR will deliver at least £350 million per year of economic growth, through increased efficiency, reduced accidents and disruptions. Resulting in overall growth of new projects like new roads, new houses and broadband roll-out.
Our training
Rest assured we will still be offering full training on the NRSWA Unit LA, if you need NRSWA training please contact us on 0333 301 0226 or at [email protected].
For more information on the NUAR please visit the government website here.
