The Challenge
Before any construction project can break ground, developers need comprehensive information about existing underground utilities—gas pipes, water mains, electrical cables, telecommunications infrastructure. This information is critical: inadvertent damage to buried utilities causes project delays, cost overruns, and potentially dangerous situations for workers and the public.
The problem is that utility records are scattered across dozens of different suppliers, each with their own formats, systems, and response times. Collating this information manually is expensive and time-consuming, often taking weeks and requiring specialist expertise to interpret diverse record formats. Many construction companies face an impossible choice: either pay premium prices for comprehensive utility searches, accept lengthy delays, or proceed with incomplete information and hope for the best.
Our Approach
In partnership with Petrie Buchanan, New Gradient developed Ugentum—an automated utility search platform that fundamentally changes how utility information is gathered and analysed. The system automates the entire workflow from initial record requests through to final report generation.
At the core of Ugentum is a sophisticated computer vision pipeline trained to interpret utility records from all major suppliers. These records come in wildly varying formats—scanned paper maps, CAD drawings, PDF documents, and digital GIS exports—each requiring different analysis approaches. Our models learned to identify utility assets, classify their types, and extract relevant metadata regardless of the source format.
We complemented the computer vision system with natural language processing capabilities that transform extracted data into coherent, professional reports. Rather than simply dumping raw data, the system generates narrative descriptions that construction professionals can actually use, highlighting key risks and clearly indicating utility locations relative to proposed work areas.
The Outcome
Ugentum reduces manual annotation time by 80%, transforming what was previously weeks of specialist work into a largely automated process. Construction companies can now obtain comprehensive utility reports quickly and cost-effectively, removing a significant barrier to project initiation.
The system handles the complexity of multi-supplier data automatically, maintaining relationships with utility providers and managing the request/response workflow without human intervention. When records arrive, they're processed immediately—no queue, no waiting for available analyst time.
Beyond efficiency gains, the automation improves consistency and reduces errors. Human analysts reviewing hundreds of utility records inevitably miss details or make mistakes; automated systems apply the same rigorous analysis to every record. This translates directly to improved safety outcomes—construction teams have better information about what lies beneath their sites, reducing the risk of accidental utility strikes.