Underground Infrastructure - July 2023 - 16

Utility Infrastructure Mapping
nology, high-speed internet on smartphones
and software programming, we
believe we can achieve the necessary precision
in underground mapping currently
lacking in the industry. "
The Sellenriek businesses is the perfect
team to take on this enormous task
because they have people in the field
performing every step of the utility construction
process. The group is based out
of Jonesburg, Mo., but you can find its
people working throughout the U.S.
UtiliSource provides a range of services,
such as fiber network engineering
and design, damage prevention, mapping,
subsurface
utility
engineering
(SUE)
and geographic information system
(GIS) services. The UtiliSource field
team works with utility companies to
locate underground facilities and inspect
construction work, making them the ideal
group to support and create accurate
utility infrastructure mapping.
Sellenriek
Construction
Inc.
was
founded by Bob Sellenriek, Steve's father,
in 1979. The company initially
worked for the local telephone company,
using a backhoe and trencher to perform
installs. Since then, the company has
helped pioneer the horizontal directional
drilling (HDD) industry while also performing
open-cut services and expanding
into aerial work.
In recent years, the company has split
into two divisions. Sellenriek Construction
focuses on installing broadband,
while Sellenriek Energy specializes in
electrical distribution work, gas pipelines
and civil boring projects.
Sellenriek Construction employs over
30 HDD crews, four aerial teams and
several crews that use vibratory plows to
install fiber in rural areas. The team also
manages up to 30 subcontractors during
busy seasons.
By contractors, for contractors
UtiliSource and Sellenriek Construction
are involved in virtually every aspect of
the utility construction process and the
ongoing care of utility infrastructure.
This gives their teams a unique perspective
on how to best protect what's in the
ground today and create a better mapping
system for the future. Sellenriek and
Hinrichs put this perspective into action.
FieldSource is a powerful opensource
software platform developed with
the help of the utility coordination group
at UtiliSource. The platform's operator
interface is an easy-to-use App for Apple
and Android smartphones. It uses data
from RTK-capable utility locators to capture
more accurate utility coordinates.
However, its data capture services
go beyond that. For example, Sellenriek
Construction's
potholing
16 JULY 2023 | UndergroundInfrastructure.com
and HDD
crews use FieldSource to capture data
points during each phase of their projects.
" After the locates are done, our teams
will pothole nearby utilities, " explained
Sellenriek. " During this process, they
mark the locations of buried lines they
find and input information about the
type of utility, its owner, and its depth
and diameter. They can also use the
FieldSource App to upload photos of important
landmarks and exposed utilities. "
Moreover, the installation crew can
utilize data from the HDD locating system
or GPS-enabled smartphones to
provide precise as-built information.
" As an organization with numerous
teams installing utilities daily, we realize
that not every line is installed using
HDD, which makes it more challenging
to gather as-built data points. There is no
guidance system on a shovel. With FieldSource,
users can combine location coordinates
from multiple sources to create a
more comprehensive mapping system, "
Sellenriek explained.
After collecting the data, it is uploaded
to the Cloud, making it shareable for
everyone involved in the project. The
team that developed FieldSource hopes
to make this information available to all
utility owners, locating services and contractors
performing future work in the
area. That is why the team decided to use
an open-source platform to build it. Data
uploaded from FieldSource can be used
with other software programs.
Sellenriek Construction and the UtiliSource
team have tested FieldSource in
their daily operations for over two years.
According to Hinrichs, " Our teams
have been responsible for beta testing
FieldSource and have regularly given us
feedback so that we can make the App as
intuitive as possible.
" We don't want FieldSource to be an
extra step in their process; we want it to
help them do their job more efficiently,
while collecting mapping details that
can help everyone avoid utility strikes
in the future. With where we are today
with FieldSource, I know we've accomplished
that goal. "
FieldSource has reduced the amount
of time Sellenriek Construction supervisors
spend on paperwork from 35
minutes daily to an average of 5 minutes.
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