What was the Client Requirement?
The Client sought utility information for a pedestrianisation project in Westminster, located just South of St James Park and only a short walk from Buckingham Palace. In addition to Apogee’s QL-D Compliant Search Report, a Fastview layered utility plan in .pdf, .dwg and .shp was also provided. Central London is extremely busy from the perspective of buried services, with countless pieces of infrastructure from several companies buried beneath practically every road surface. As a result, the area requested for this site was highly unusual and followed only specific roads and buildings of key interest to the development to reduce costs, and to manage the amount of data being collected and reviewed.
What was the Apogee Solution?
The plans for the site were collated and summarised as normal for the originating Full Utility Search report, and the affected linework within the site boundary was then digitised and placed against the OS Mastermap base. This allowed the client to see all of the affected utilities for the development simultaneously, to toggle relevant utilities on or off in real-time, and to more easily understand and interpret the large amount of data for the site. This was provided in the form of two PDFs each showing half of the area requested, which included a base OS Mastermap layer for georeferencing and accuracy.
What was the result of the report?
The site was exceptionally busy and required two separate PDFs to deliver despite the area itself not being exceptionally large – a short walk from major London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, this site was one of the busiest we have searched (and one of the busiest such sites in England) with assets from 20 separate companies identified in the report. Breaking the ground here without doing proper utility discovery would cause significant costs and represent an enormous health and safety risk.
Why was the client delighted?
The Fastview Report condenses a large amount of complex information into an easy-to-use, visually accessible PDF document. The Report was delivered on time and was well suited to their design and feasibility needs for the development.
View our Full Utility Search Report Service – click here to view more.
Who else would buy this?
Apogee search reports and combined drawings are ideal for Solicitors, Clients and Project Managers, Developers, Local Authorities Consultants, Architects, Design & Build Contractors, Highways Scheme promoters and Surveyors. Anyone involved with a residential or commercial development who would benefit from understanding the risks and costs which come from utilities would be well placed to talk to us.
Even if you are not the source of funds for the development and cost savings are of secondary importance to you, Apogee can help you avoid other inconveniences such as delays and reduce the risk of any accidents or strikes of the existing plant, as well as improve due diligence and help you achieve compliance under the relevant guidelines and regulations, namely PAS128 and HSG47. They have decades of experience in managing such conflicts across our capable team, a member of whom was on the PAS128 steering committee and who was personally involved in the drafting of PAS128 Quality Level D.
View our Case Study on the Barbour Product Search website – Click Here to view it in a new window.