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HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-69 – History of SUE in Ecuador (Part 1) The picture Is of Cardno-TBE associates Gary Frazho, an Unidentified SUE Technician, and Eddie Gaytan performing SUE work in Ecuador. For the next few weeks, our SUE history will involve Ecuador as told by Alejandro Rodas, President/Principal of SUE Latam, which is located in Quito, Ecuador. Alejandro has been involved with SUE for more than 11 years, beginning in 2013. It has not been easy for him, but with help from Nick Zembillas, he has prevailed and has been very successful. This is his story. Alejandro Rodas’ History of SUE in Ecuador (Part 1) “Cardno TBE established a Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) business unit in Ecuador in 2013. Nick Zembillas and Gary Frazho traveled numerous miles to begin the process of establishing a legal SUE operation in Ecuador. The strategic plan was to expand SUE services into the Latin American market “I became the first hire, as a SUE Project Manager in Latin America. During the months ahead, I traveled to the US to be trained at the Cardno TBE headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, on SUE for Detection, Locating and Mapping practices and methodologies. My training and development were valuable and intense with the SUE process per ASCE 38-02 and TBE’s SUE Training Program. I was privileged to work with fellow SUE professionals, such as Celena Stone (Fleet Director), Lawrence Arcand (Canadian TSH/TBE Principal), Bob Clemens, Vince Reger and others, who helped me along my career at Cardno TBE. But most importantly, the key person, who in the near future would become a mentor and business partner, Nick Zembillas.” “During 2013 and 2014, I, alongside Nick and Gary, did “many” of the business development activities, presented on SUE at conferences, conducted SUE seminars, and made presentations and demonstrations with both, public and private clients all over Ecuador.” “Eventually, we were asked to perform demonstrations for the Quito Subway and an intersection for the Municipality of Public Works. For that work, our Ecuadorian operation received US support from Gary Frazho as the Operations Manager, and he brought with him Chris Proulx and Eddie Gaytan from Cardno TBE. They succeed by detecting the first underground utilities and managed to perform three test holes using vacuum excavation.” [Next Week – Work in Ecuador Gets Underway.] #SubsurfaceUtilityEngineering

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-68 – AASHTO CRUO Conference The AASHTO Committee on Right-of-Way, Utilities, and Outdoor Advertising Conference (AASHTO CRUO Conference) is very popular today. It is THE conference for State DOT utilities managers, SUE providers (see picture), and others. But do you know how Utilities got involved with Right-of-Way and become a part of it? The short answer is the names of two individuals – STUART WAYMACK and BILL PICKERING, Directors, at the time respectively, of the Virginia and Pennsylvania DOT’s Offices of Right-of-Way. How did this come about? It was a beautiful spring day in Williamsburg, Virginia, I had driven down from the FHWA HQ in the District of Columbia to attend the annual meeting of the AASHTO Committee on Right-of-Way. It was 1996, or maybe 1997, I can’t remember. I do remember that it was just a year or two before Tennessee won the national college football championship in 1998. Go Vols! The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sponsored many highway-related committees in the 1990s (construction, design, right-of-way, bridges, etc.). Just about everything highway-related, except utilities. Utilities has always had a hard time finding a home. At many State DOTs today it is housed in right-of-way offices, at others, who knows where? I was interested when someone told me the annual AASHTO Right-Of-Way Conference in Williamsburg was having a day with utility breakout sessions and several of the State DOT utilities managers would be there. So, here I was, sitting in a room listening to a presentation, when the door opens and in walks Bill Pickering, a man I knew well from having attended Region 3 (PA, VA, MD, DE, WV) annual utilities workshops. Well, Bill apologizes for disrupting the presentation and proceeds to walk straight back to where I am sitting. He quietly asks me to accompany him out into the hall to discuss something. So, I do that and see Stuart Waymack, another friendly face from the Region 3 meetings, standing there. What could they possibly want with me? They proceeded to tell me they were responsible for utilities in their States and were interested in including utilities in the AASHTO right-of-way conference and wondered if FHWA would support this effort and become a part of their Executive Committee that planned the conferences each year. I assured Bill and Stuart that FHWA would indeed very much like to join them. And so, we did. This joint venture enabled State DOT utilities managers from all over the country to have three days of utilities presentations and discussions every year, many of them about SUE. It is the place where many of them first learned about SUE and how it works. CRUO is a very popular conference today and continues to grow and thrive. And Utilities are an important part of it. Thanks to the vision of Stuart Waymack and Bill Pickering, and maybe a little help from the FHWA. #SUE #Engineeering

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-67 – National Highway Utility Conference   It is 1988 again. It was a blustery winter day in the District of Columbia. I was at work in the FHWA’s Railroads, Utilities, and Special Programs Branch. Jim Carney was the boss. Jim Overton, the author of the first ever utilities regulation (Title 23 Code of Federal Regulations 645) was his assistant. The building we worked in only had minimal security. People came and went as they pleased. There was no concern when a large group of nice-looking people entered our building one morning and headed straight to Jim Carney’s office. He had apparently expected them, and they all sat down in chairs placed around his desk and proceeded to talk. I found out later they were prominent representatives of the utilities’ community -- Reva Reed (Ohio Bell Telephone Company, that’s her picture), Don Gordon (Wisconsin Power), Dennis La Belle (Florida Power & Light), Tom Jackson (Georgia Power), and Marie Piper (BellSouth). Reva and Marie were highly respected leaders in a men’s world. All were actively involved in leadership roles in other national and state industry groups, such as IRWA, APWA, TRB, and others. Jim told me later he had urged them to develop a conference for utility owners whose facilities were located on highway right-of-way so they could come together with State and Federal representatives to discuss joint use issues. They agreed to develop such a conference and the first National Highway/Utility Conference (NHUC) was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in April 1989. Reva Reed took the lead, with help from her good friend, Ramona Sayre, and the others mentioned above. These conferences were held every year and a half for about the next 15 or so years with great support from the FHWA. There were usually about 150-300 people in attendance, mostly representing utility companies and State DOTs, but with a few representing local DOTs, SUE consultants, and other interested individuals. At this first NHUC in 1989, Jim Anspach announced for the first time to a national audience that the process known as “Designating and Locating” was from then on to be called “Subsurface Utility Engineering.” This designation soon became shortened to simply “SUE.” SUE always had a place on the agenda at all the National Highway/Utility Conferences and was embraced by the SUE community. I remember one conference where Jim taught a breakout room full of his company’s SUE competitors how to perform SUE properly. Reva Reed died last year; she was 86 years old. “You did a lot of good in your lifetime, Reva. Rest in peace.”     #SUE #Engineering

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-66 – CCC: Making the Effort Works Magazine articles, research reports, and videotapes have been an important part of the History of Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE). Previous LinkedIn posts have highlighted (a) the Purdue Study (Post 58, “Cost Savings on Highway Projects Utilizing Subsurface Utility Engineering”); (b) ASCE 38-02 (Post 59, “Standard Guideline for the Collection and Depiction of Existing Subsurface Utility Data”); and (c) “Avoiding Utility Relocations” (Post 65). This post highlights an important video entitled “CCC-Making the Effort Works.” Utilities are a leading cause of costly delays during construction of highway projects. Early and frequent coordination, cooperation, and communication (CCC) between state transportation department (DOT) and utilities' personnel typically results in faster and more efficient utility relocation. "CCC: Making the Effort Works!" was made possible early in 2000 by FHWA’s Jim Sorenson and funded by his Office of Asset Management. The video shows how greater CCC between utilities and transportation agencies can save time and money on highway projects and received the prestigious Crystal PACE public relations award from a national organization. A Michigan firm, LTS Productions, was hired to prepare the script, videotape the content, and edit this 19-minute video, which is still available on You Tube. FHWA’s Office of Infrastructure (my office following a massive FHWA reorganization) was actively involved in the script, information collection, and review activities). More than 1,000 DVDs of the were distributed by FHWA to state and local transportation agencies, utility firms, and other stakeholders nationwide. This video was based on research and recommendations contained in AASHTO’s “Guidelines and Best Practices” and was aimed to teach transportation agencies and utility companies how to avoid construction delays and reduce or eliminate unnecessary project costs by working in partnership. It features extemporaneous comments from DOT utility, design, and construction engineers at state and district levels; engineers and coordinators from local, state, and regional utility companies; representatives of FHWA and private engineering firms. Speakers share successful strategies and innovative practices for reducing utility-related delays. The video also shows how good CCC between highway agency pre-construction staff and utility company engineers with planning, budgeting, and utility relocation responsibility for a project can better understand competing needs, recognize the actions to avoid construction delays, and be motivated to work in partnership. I hope you will watch this video. It is 22 years old but is still applicable to SUE and other utility-related activities. Just Google “CCC: Making the Effort Works" or go to YouTube and search for “CCC: Making the Effort Works.”

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post 65 – Avoiding Utility Relocations  By the year 2000, all the State departments of transportation (DOTs) had been introduced to SUE. I visited with all the State Utilities Managers and some of their supervisors during the 1990s, mostly in their offices and/or at conferences, but some by telephone and/or email. Jim Anspach and Nick Zembillas outdid me and visited all of them in their offices. We were disappointed that many of them were still not using SUE in 2000, but confident that they had all be introduced to it. So, in the early 2000s, FHWA began promoting SUE less by travel and more by distributing research studies, publications, and videos. About that time, friends from the FHWA Office of Operations -- Mike Burk and Vinnie Nowakowski – made implementation funds available for two utilities-related research projects. One of them was "Avoiding Utility Relocations." This document in its entirety can be found on the FHWA website (search for FHWA utilities). "Avoiding Utility Relocations" was prepared for the FHWA in 2002 pursuant to recommendations by the AASHTO Highway Subcommittee on Right of Way and Utilities and by the AASHTO/FHWA European Scanning Team on Right of Way and Utilities. I had copies of the manual made and distributed free copies to all State DOTs and to anyone else that wanted copies for distribution or for themselves. It was a very popular manual and is still valid today. Nichols Consulting Engineers was awarded the FHWA contract for development of this manual. Patricia Lees and John Munson were the primary authors. Contributors were Kenneth Blom, NORCAL Geophysical Consultants, Jerome Nelson, Consulting Geophysicist, Paul Scott, Federal Highway Administration, and James Anspach, So-Deep, Inc. The purpose of the research was to develop a manual that encouraged highway designers to avoid unnecessary utility relocations in the designs for which they were responsible and to suggest many ways that utility relocations could be avoided. Relative to SUE it is pointed out in the manual that: “Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) is a proven, cost-effective engineering practice for accurately identifying the quality of subsurface utility information needed for highway plans, and for acquiring and managing that level of information during the development of a highway project. The efficient use of SUE information allows designers to avoid utility relocations. The use of quality levels in the SUE process allows designers to certify on the plans that a certain level of accuracy and comprehensiveness has been provided.” Next week we will look at another contribution to SUE in 2002, video still in use today, entitled “CCC: Making the Effort Works.”  

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-64 – History of SUE in Canada (Part 5) LAWRENCE ARCAND’S HISTORY OF SUE IN CANADA (PART 5 OF 5) Despite the impacts of COVID the SUE field continues to expand in Canada, primarily driven by its use in Ontario.  In Ontario, SUE is included in RFP language for several municipalities and the MTO. Private developers are also using SUE as a way to gather accurate utility information for large commercial and residential development projects, primarily in busy urban centers. SUE is getting a foot hold in the British Columbia and Alberta markets and is still in its infancy across other Provinces. The SUE service industry continues to grow in Canada. For example, in the fall of 2020 Lawrence Arcand formed the newest SUE firm in the Canadian market, 4Sight Utility Engineers. Although the company is new, 4Sight is a collaboration of experienced industry professionals including Alan Ruck, Josh Cowan, Scott Schreiber and others). There are currently several firms in the Canadian market offering SUE services. Some of the larger SUE firms across the country include 4Sight Utility Engineers, GeoScan, On-Site, T2 Utility Engineers, Planview, UES, and Urban X. (This concludes Lawrence Arcand’s History of SUE in Canada for now, but it will be continued in a few months with an in-depth history of SUE in Canada in the 2020s) Next week: Back to the USA for more history of SUE in the early 2000s.  

#SubsurfaceUtilityEngineering HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-63 – History of SUE in Canada (Part 4) LAWRENCE ARCAND’S HISTORY OF SUE IN CANADA (PART 4 OF 5) The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) formed a committee to draft a new standard that was published in 2011 and became CSA S250 – Mapping of Underground Utility Infrastructure. A large committee of experts from all over the country worked for approximately five years to publish the document. The group was led by Mark Braiter (CSA) and Laverne Hanley (Union Gas). The document, although more focused on the creation of new utility records/as-builts, referenced the ASCE 38-02 standard as a best practice for the collection and depiction of existing subsurface utility data. A summary of ASCE 38-02 and a description of SUE was laid out in the appendix of the document. Originally Utility Coordination (UC) was considered under the SUE umbrella, until the concept of Utility Engineering was pushed by the American Society of Civil Engineering’s Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute (UESI). The first formal UC project using SUE data to create composite utility drawings was Phase II of the 407 Express Toll Route in the Durham Region of Ontario. Lawrence Arcand worked with Mark Cavanaugh to perform the Utility Coordination efforts for the preliminary design phase of the project. The resulting information was utilized for advanced utility relocations and the Public-Private Partnership (P3) Request for Proposals procurement document. Some highlights of this project included the relocations of multiple oil/gas transmission pipelines and Hydro One electrical transmission towers. The initial phase of the highway opened the day after Father’s Day in 2016. Also, in 2016 the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) published "Guideline for the Coordination of Utility Relocations.” The guideline was developed through the collaboration of the TAC’s Public Utilities Management Subcommittee (see picture), which had representation from consultants, government agencies and utilities from across the country. A taskforce of the committee, led by Steve Murphy of the York Region, drafted the document using volunteer hours. The guideline included the use of SUE principals as part of its best practices. A subsequent “Guideline for the Coordination of Utility Relocations on P3 Projects” was published in 2022 and highlighted the importance of SUE in the overall Utility Risk Management on large infrastructure projects. In 2018 the Alberta Ministry of Transportation underwent an exercise to re-write their Utilities Manual based on the best practices outlined in the TAC Guideline. Ed Plant, Steve Murphy, and Lawrence Arcand worked closely together with the Alberta Transportation to hone the new manual and present it to all stakeholders.   (Lawrence Arcand’s History of SUE in Canada will be continued next week)

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-62 – History of SUE in Canada (Part 3 of 5) LAWRENCE ARCAND’S HISTORY OF SUE IN CANADA (PART 3 OF 5) The Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) was founded around 2003-4 based on the success of the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) in the United States. Jim Douglas (Enbridge) was the original executive director that helped form the ORCGA. During the time the ORCGA was forming there was a fatal gas explosion in Toronto that focused people’s attention on the need for best practices and safety when working in the vicinity of underground utility networks. Consequently, ORGCA published a Best Practices document in 2004 that included a best practice about the proper use of SUE in accordance with the American Society of Civil Engineers’ ASCE 38-02 standard guideline. The ORCGA became the seed to other provincial regional Common Ground Alliances, which ultimately led to the creation of the Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) and a national Best Practices document. At this stage there were still very few providers of SUE services in the Ontario market - TSH/TBE (led by Lawrence Arcand), UES (led by Ophir Wainer, see picture) and Multiview (led by John Scaife). The SUE market was slowly growing, primarily focused on municipal transportation and water/sewer projects. The business side of the SUE in Canada got shook up in 2008. In the spring TSH was sold to AECOM, and in the fall TBE was sold to Cardno. The joint venture continued for a couple of years with the new parent companies. Eventually the decision was made to split it out into an independent company – T2 Utility Engineers, whose name reflects the original TSH and TBE. The original President of T2 Utility Engineers was Lawrence Arcand who maintained that position until eventually leaving the firm in 2020. The SUE market continued to expand and eventually jumped beyond the borders of Ontario. Projects were completed in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec. In Alberta projects were completed in Calgary, Edmonton, and for the Alberta Ministry of Transportation. One of the first projects was on McLeod Trail in front of Calgary City Hall to facilitate the reconstruction of the roadway. The SUE investigation found valuable information. One unique finding was an old wooden duct bank carrying telecommunication cables. One of the first projects in British Columbia was at the Vancouver Port Authority for the expansion of the Port of Vancouver. (Lawrence Arcand’s History of SUE in Canada will be continued next week)  

HISTORY OF SUBSURFACE UTILITY ENGINEERING Post-61 – History of SUE in Canada (Part 2)    LAWRENCE ARCAND’S HISTORY OF SUE IN CANADA (PART 2 OF 5)   Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) in the early 2000s was a completely foreign concept in Canada and a lot of effort went into educating potential users of the service. There were numerous "lunch and learn" presentations to educate consultants, municipalities, and other government agencies about the merits of SUE. I remember one consultant actually saying, “it will be a cold day in hell before MTO (Ministry of Transportation Ontario) will use SUE.” It would not be long before that person would eat his words. It was about this time that Paul Scott made his first visit to Canada to speak at a TSH/TBE workshop on SUE. He presented on the history of SUE and the findings from the Purdue Study that investigated the Return on Investment for implementing SUE on a project. The first job completed for the MTO was done at the Homer Watson Boulevard Interchange with the 401 around Cambridge Ontario. The project involved a new road bridge construction, new ramps, and a new pedestrian bridge to service the nearby Conestoga College. The MTO wanted to use the project as a SUE pilot. So, they put TSH/TBE in contact with the prime consultant, Dillon Engineering, who was working on the project. It was very successful and identified a number of utilities in question on the project. One questionable utility was a watermain crossing through the area of the proposed new ramps. Another key finding was a fibre optics cable designated crossing the highway in the precise alignment of the proposed Pedestrian Bridge. Thankfully because of the SUE data they were able to shift the bridge and avoid any conflict with the fibre optics cable. The first SUE Standing Offer (On-Call Contract) was initiated by the Town on Richmond Hill. The key person at the Town was John Thompson, a project manager who became convinced of the merits of SUE based on the success of a pilot project completed for the Town. I was the Project Manager for the first Standing Offer contract which completed numerous road, water and sewer projects for the Town. The format of that standing offer contract became the seed document for numerous other municipalities like Hamilton, Toronto, Barrie, Vaughan, York Region, Niagara Region, Mississauga, and others that followed suit over the last 10-15 years. (Lawrence Arcand’s History of SUE in Canada will be continued next week)