The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) now covers more than 80% of known buried assets in England, Wales and Northern Ireland following the upload of data from Openreach.
The UK’s largest broadband network provider has added location data, including ducts, conduits, poles, spans, cabinets and chambers, for more than 550,000km of its network to the NUAR platform. This means NUAR now holds detailed information on 277 million assets from underground asset owners, covering an estimated 3.25 million kilometres of pipes, across electricity, gas, water, pipeline operators and telecoms.
Openreach networks director Trevor Linney said: “Safety is our number one priority and today, Openreach provides information to other providers needing to dig near our infrastructure. NUAR has the potential to provide the one-stop shop for users to view everyone’s infrastructure in a consolidated and unified way, helping keep everyone safe and preventing damage and disruption.”
NUAR is operated by Ordnance Survey (OS). Carsten Roensdorf, NUAR product manager at OS, added: “Openreach coming on board is a giant step forward towards getting full coverage in the NUAR platform, further assisting the safe digging process by providing access to a comprehensive set of underground asset data. Openreach has a very wide coverage and will add value to most of the searches carried out in NUAR.”
Time to adopt the register
Nearly 140 contractors are using NUAR. Any contractors who have delayed their use of it due to concerns about coverage should now start using the platform, Roensdorf said. Contractors without access to NUAR should contact the OS support team, detailing which asset owner they are working with.
Nearly 340 buried asset owners have uploaded their data to the platform. He called on any remaining buried asset owners to get on board. “For those asset owners not yet on board with NUAR, they are missing out on accessing underground asset data from all main electricity and gas networks, together with comprehensive telecom data, including Openreach’s network, all in one simple interface at the click of a button.
“We’d love remaining asset owners to join and make the platform increasingly comprehensive. Wider participation will help everyone access a more complete view of the underground pipes and cables and support safe excavations.”
