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Management system, and associated methods and apparatus, for providing improved visibility, quality control and audit capability for underground facility locate and/or marking operations

  • US 8,731,999 B2
  • Filed: 02/11/2010
  • Issued: 05/20/2014
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for managing a locate operation performed by a technician, the locate operation comprising identifying, in response to at least one locate request ticket, a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within a dig area at a work site of excavation activities, wherein at least a portion of the dig area is planned to be excavated or disturbed during the excavation activities, the apparatus comprising:

  • a communication interface;

    a memory to store processor-executable instructions; and

    a processing unit communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit,the processing unit;

    A) controls the communication interface to electronically receive first ticket information relating to the at least one locate request ticket, the first ticket information including first image data associated with the dig area, wherein the first image data includes at least one of;

    a marked-up image of a geographic area including the dig area, the marked-up image including at least one dig area indicator to provide an indication of the dig area; and

    geographic information derived from or relating to the marked-up image relating to the at least one dig area indicator;

    B) controls the communication interface to transmit second ticket information to at least one locate personnel device and/or at least one piece of locating equipment used by the technician to perform the locate operation,wherein the second ticket information is derived from the first ticket information;

    C) controls the communication interface to receive from the at least one locate personnel device and/or the at least one piece of locating equipment a completed locate request ticket, the completed locate request ticket including second image data and/or non-image data relating to the locate operation as performed by the technician, wherein;

    i) the at least one locate personnel device and/or the at least one piece of locating equipment includes a locate device and a marking device;

    ii) the locate operation as performed by the technician comprises;

    detecting the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area via the locate device used by the technician; and

    marking, by actuating the marking device, the presence or the absence of the at least one underground facility within the dig area to place at least one physical locate mark on ground, pavement or other surface within the dig area;

    (iii) the marking device generates marking information relating to the marking by the technician; and

    (iv) the completed locate request ticket includes at least some of the marking information generated by the marking device;

    D) processes the completed locate request ticket so as to provide a quality assessment of the locate operation by comparing the portion of the second image data and/or the non-image data including the at least some of the marking information to reference information so as to provide the quality assessment of the locate operation, and wherein the reference information includes at least one of;

    first information derived from or relating to one or more facilities maps;

    second information derived from or relating to one or more previous locate operations; and

    third information relating to one or more environmental landmarks in or proximate to the dig area; and

    E) controls the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the completed locate request ticket and/or the quality assessment so as to provide a searchable electronic record of the locate operation.

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