LGovernmentFacility

Reprinted From Underground Construction July 2004 www.undergroundconstructiononline.com

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory(LLNL) is a U.S. Department of Energylaboratory operated by the University ofCalifornia. Founded in September 1952,LLNL has become one of the world’s pre-mier scientific centers for cutting-edgescience in areas of national importanceincluding energy, biomedicine, homelandsecurity and environmental science.

This laboratory consists of a onesquare-mile campus located at a formernaval air station in Livermore, CA. BruceFritschy, damage prevention manager forLLNL, explains that the site has all of thecomplexities of a municipality, and more.

“Because of the nature of our opera-tions, we have more varied undergroundfacilities than a typical city,” Fritschyexplains. “These include low conductivity(process) water supply and return, citywater, deionized water, sanitary sewer,storm drains, telecommunications, natu-ral gas, low and high voltage electricalpower, special waste disposal systems,compressed air and various gases.”

To complicate matters, Fritschy notes,the former naval air base is criss-crossedwith abandoned facilities of varioustypes, and also includes remnants of con-crete runways. Unlike normal municipallocating, where applications couldinvolve just one utility, an LLNL locateassignment may entail as many as 13 sep-arate utilities on one ticket, and workersmust also contend with abandoned orunknown underground components.

Zero tolerance

Because of the nature of the work con-ducted at LLNL, the organization haszero tolerance for damage to under-

Optimizes Underground Location Accuracy For Safety, Efficiency

Top inset: Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratories’ Damage Prevention Manager BruceFritschy (left) discusses marker ball program-ming with certified LLNL locator Maxine Lawson,using the 3M Dynatel 2200M id Series locatingand marking system.Top: 3M 1400 Series EMS iD Ball Markers iden-tify the location of hot and chilled water supplyand return lines. Markers are kept a minimum ofthree feet apart, and programmed with detailsincluding type of service, depth, date of place-ment, permit number and map coordinates.Bottom: LLNL services in this trench includecompressed air, natural gas and fire suppressionlines, as well as an alarm conduit, each markedwith 3M 1400 Series EMS iD ball markers.

ground facilities, the damage preventionmanager explains, both for safety and to protect the status of critical laboratory work. The LLNL TechnicalAdmin i s t ra t ion Group , l oca ted within Plant Engineering’s FacilitiesMaintenance Management Division, hasits own one-call center and rigorous pro-cedures governing installation and main-tenance of underground facilities, bothinside structures and across the campus.A 30-inch dig restriction zone aroundburied facilities is enforced at LLNL, incontrast to California’s 24-inch rule.

“In the past, we relied on outside con-tract locators, some with substandardtraining and poor record-keeping capabil-ities, and their work details were notrecorded in a database. As site complexi-ty grew, LLNL suffered damage problemsrelated to locator accuracy and incom-plete records,” Fritschy said.

“To improve results, an in-house locat-ing program was organized, completewith centralized records and advancedmapping capabilities. We established apermit procedure based on the nationalOne-Call System and the Department ofTransportation’s one-call study, withenhancements to meet our specializedneeds. Today, the One-Call Permit Officehandles five different permit categoriesrelated to locating work both insidebuildings and outside as part of our‘Safety through Damage PreventionProgram.”

He explained that when locating isarranged by an outside contractor today,the work must be assigned to a locatorthat is on the LLNL approved list and hasbeen third-party certified. Only third-party certified individuals, and not companies, are allowed to perform workon the site, and LLNL’s five staff locatorsmust meet the same high certificationstandards.

One of the first major tasks taken on bythe LLNL location organization wasvideotaping and mapping all sewer anddrain facilities in the complex. This condition assessment allowed an accu-rate determination of underground conditions, and provided for cost-effec-tive planning of repair and replacementwork, which included lining of some pipe.The sewer/drain survey and repairprocess involved five years of effort,Fritschy notes, and resulted in fullymapped sewers and drains and a dramat-ically improved ability to deal with majorspills or other emergencies.

Gaining data

In the late 1990s, LLNL began placingpassive underground markers to denote

the locations of various utility points.These markers were put in the groundduring construction or when trenchingfor repair or changes, and the markedpoints were recorded for future refer-ence. Passive markers greatly improved alocator’s ability to return to a specificpoint, but provided little informationabout the underground setting, particu-larly in cases where records were incom-plete or inaccurate.

In early 2003, LLNL switched to activeunderground markers, using the new 3MDynatel 2200MiD Series Locating andMarking System for field mapping andfacilities maintenance. This markingapproach makes it possible to find a loca-tion and confirm details of the buriedfeature before excavation begins, andworkers know in advance what to expect(i.e., power line, gas valve, telephonestub or point where a utility has beenrepaired, as well as when it was placedand who did the work.

Each active marker comes with aunique preset identification number, andis programmed with point-specific infor-mation by the placement crew, includingthe utility in question, depth belowgrade, size of the structure, the LLNLpermit number associated with the work,the grid point on the campus map andthe year the work was done. The preci-sion of this marking method now makesit possible for a crew to go back at a laterdate, quickly find the marker, verifyunderground details, and then excavatewith confidence using a tool as small as apost-hole digger.

Active markers come in a series of col-ors, each intended for a specific under-ground utility per industry standards.However, LLNL has opted to use the pur-ple general purpose marker only.Fritschy explains, “We decided to use

general purpose 3M 1400 Series EMS iDBall Markers throughout rather than themore common municipal practice ofplacing distinctly colored models withspecific frequencies for each under-ground utility. This makes it possible forour locators to find and read every mark-er (and all marked utilities) that arefound at a given point using a singlemarker ball frequency.

The active underground marker prac-tice ties in well with LLNL’s Open TrenchPolicy – a practice governing all outsideexcavation work. Per this policy, the firststep is to request a permit for work basedon the intended locate. Then when atrench has been opened, Fritschy’s officeis notified by the individual responsiblefor pulling the permit that the utility hasbeen exposed. This triggers a series ofactions including a site survey to pin-point the location on the LLNL grid, fol-lowed by placing and programming amarker ball. A digital photograph of thetrench and exposed utility is taken fordatabase records, and finally a compli-ance coordinator verifies that all workhas been done properly. The next time itis necessary to open that location, thecrew will know exactly what to expectbased on the programmed marker, docu-mentation and site photos. This under-ground information will help ensure safe-ty as well as efficient underground facili-ties management.

Heavy locate duty

According to Fritschy, LLNL crews do asubstantial amount of excavatingbecause of ongoing construction as wellas maintenance and modification work,and marker placement is now a standardoperating procedure. The Department ofEnergy periodically audits the process,

A new double-wall toxic waste line has beeninstalled in this excavated trench. Tracer wire

and ball markers identify the pipe route.

www.undergroundconstructiononline.com July 2004 Reprinted From Underground Construction

looking for accuracy in configurationmanagement, infrastructure and map-ping. Fritschy estimates that LLNL’s in-house and contract locators combined doan average of 850 locates annually. Giventhe multiple utilities located at manypoints and the zero tolerance for dam-age, each locate can take 4 to 5 hours.

Another responsibility of the DamagePrevention group is mapping of rebarand other embedded utilities in LLNLbuildings. Concrete work during buildingchanges can lead to unacceptable safetyrisks since workers may inadvertentlysaw or jackhammer into live electricalcircuits. The group uses specializedequipment to analyze and mark concretebefore work begins. They also check out-door asphalt sections for buried electri-cal lighting conduit before any road workis conducted. Ground penetrating radarnow makes it possible to check for buriedor concrete-encapsulated elements to adepth of three feet.

LLNL is currently in the process ofimplementing a global positioning sys-

tem (GPS) adjunct to marker placementand programming to further complimentthe open trench program, Fritschyreports. GPS will help document mapaccuracy, and global coordinates willrecord each ball marker, on spreadsheetrecords and AutoCAD drawings of thesite. This will involve an on-site transmit-ter signal coordinated with satelliteinformation to give field positioning withcentimeter accuracy. Fritschy expectsthat in the future, crews will use GPSequipment to zero in on marker loca-tions, and then read and collect datausing a marker locator. It is anticipatedthat in future locating systems, GPS andmarker locator/reader functions willcommunicate seamlessly.

An internal audit shows that the cost ofpaperwork and documentation related toa damage event could run in excess of$100,000, apart from the cost of repairs,lost service expenses, safety issues orthe threat to critical laboratory activities.The use of active markers and strictlocating procedures along with detailed

record-keeping has resulted in a clearvalue proposition, the LLNL damage pre-vention manager added.

“Based on the Department of Energypolicy and commercial One Call studies,we always come down on the side of cau-tion, and take the most extreme safetymeasures to protect employees andLLNL operations,” Fritschy said. “Newlocation technologies are constantlycoming on line, and it is our policy toadopt the latest and most effective meth-ods. We anticipate that emerging optionssuch as active markers, high resolutionglobal positioning and ultra-soundunderground detection will be of increas-ing importance to LLNL in the future.”

Fritschy and his staff work closely withthe surrounding municipality on facilitiesmanagement for the periphery of the lab-oratory campus, and LLNL is an activemember of NULCA, the Common GroundAlliance and the One-Call System (USA North).

Government Facility

Reprinted From Underground Construction July 2004 www.undergroundconstructiononline.com