The Utility Management Process: A Guide to Managing Utility Variables in the Real World

As infrastructure ages and projects become more complex, addressing the unknown variables of subsurface utilities is becoming ever more integral to project success. History has proven the value to a project for performing subsurface utility engineering (SUE) done in accordance with the ASCE 38 standard but this only provides the foundation, the base knowledge, and information, to build a robust utility management plan for an individual project assignment. This presentation will present practical tools and processes for outlining such a project specific utility management plan (UMP). Effective use of an UMP mitigates the unknown variables associated with subsurface utilities and allows for scoping early on in the project lifecycle to realistically identify costs and schedule impacts and facilitates a reasonable assessment of associated risks. Not dissimilar to Project Management Plans, Utility Management Plans are living, breathing documents that are started at the project planning phase and carry through to project completion. The UMP provides for a systematized approach to address all utility unknowns encountered in various phases from route assessment to design, through construction and into operations and maintenance. The elements of the UMP vary depending on project requirements and conditions but all are built on the premise of focusing the knowledge base of Utility Engineering into one unified document that is founded on a professional level of understanding of SUE, Utility Coordination, Condition Assessments, Land Survey, Project Management, and the fundamentals of utility design. Instrumental in the creation of an UMP is a solid understanding of the multitude of variables inherent to subsurface utilities and the impact that these variables may have on any given project or phase of a project. ASCE has published or is in the process of publishing standards that can aid in qualifying certain requirements that would be set forth in the UMP. These standards and how to effectively implement them on a UMP will be presented in this discussion as well. This presentation will take a deeper dive into the utility management life cycle in relation to the project lifecycle and provide the necessary guidelines for managing utilities and help define the concepts related to the Utility Management Process and its physical guidance document, the Utility Management Plan.