An easy-to-use solution to prevent utility accidents

Waskita Karya (Persero) Tbk is one of the leading state companies in Indonesia that plays a significant role in infrastructure development. Founded in 1961, Waskita Karya initially participated in water-related project work including reclamation, dredging, ports and irrigation. However, since 1973 the company has started to develop its business as a general contractor on a broader range of construction activities including roads, bridges, airports, waste processing plants, cement plants and other industrial facilities.

On-site utilities detection and documentation

Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu Toll Road或Becakayu是在Kalimalang河上建造的高速公路，可减少Kalimalang周围的交通拥堵。高速公路区的建设于2018年完成。从那时起，Bekasi开始迅速增长，现在已成为无法负担在雅加达购买房产的公民的“逃生”。此外，Bekasi也已成为雅加达的重要卫星城市。

The data from BPS (Statistics Centre) from 2016, shows that there are around 359.531 commuters from Bekasi to Jakarta which increases traffic jams and makes, for example, a 15 kilometres distance take between 2-3 hours driving in peak hours. Therefore, the government initiated the construction of the Becakayu Elevated highway, which will connect Bekasi to Jakarta along 21,042 km with a total investment up to 7.2 billion IDR.

With Becakayu Elevated highway the same route will only take 30 minutes. This highway project has a vital role in accelerating traffic, as well as goods transportation and services distribution connecting the two major cities.

The challenge

Waskita Karya was contracted for the entire design and building of the infrastructure and the motorway. On this current project (Becakayu Phase 2A – edge), along with over 700 meters, the contracted team is passing through various terrain and asphalt conditions. The section consists of 48 pillars (foundation) with different dimensions, and those pillars are embedded from 5 m up to 10 m depth.

It is essential to ensure in the early process that the pillar's design is correct and safe to embed up to 5 or 10 m depth. Only after this step can the construction process start.
Typically, there are plenty of utilities buried underground, especially as the project site dominantly is in the inner city and some of the utilities are critical such as electric cables, oil and gas pipes. Those utilities are usually buried under 2 m depth; therefore, right after the predesign of the pillar's position, it's necessary to check the real situation on-site, before the construction begins.

其背后的原因是要避免进行挖掘工作时实用罢工。如果现场检查表明计划的支柱的位置会危及公用事业，则柱子需要重新设计了支柱的位置，有时需要重做支柱本身的尺寸。

“由于该项目的时间表和复杂的工作范围，我们需要一种解决方案，该解决方案可以使我们能够轻松检测埋藏的实用程序，但精确。快速意味着这里不仅易于使用和操作，而且易于使用分析并获得结果。我们需要一种解决方案，使我们能够轻松，快速地了解公用事业的准确位置，并可以立即获取文档。” Trek Division高级副总裁Luki Danardi解释说。

解决方案

The easiness to operate the Leica DSX and the visualisation in real time with the DXplore software, detecting buried utilities became much more straightforward, and anyone could do it without the need to having ground penetrating radar (GPR) background expertise. With little training, the staff was able to use without any issues.

Besides that, the software allows detecting buried utilities underground faster yet precise. Allowing also to export the data collected onto various file's format (CAD or BIM Software), which allowed the data to be used later on with other divisions or even send directly to the excavator's machine control system.

"Leica DSX is supporting us in detecting all types of buried utilities, such as water pipes (PDAM), fibre optic cables, and oil and gas pipe, with high resolution. Thus, we could avoid the risk of utility strikes during construction, saving us time and avoid additional costs to the project. To reduce utility strikes during excavation works and to mitigate the loss of money due to fines caused by the failure of works," explains Danardi.

The outcome

"We could detect buried utilities in our project so it could mitigate the accident during the construction and pay-fine due to the failure of excavation. Comparing with old methods we used; this equipment is helping us a lot, from time savings until cost savings and delivering accurate design for an infrastructure project," Danardi explains.

Besides the cost and time savings, the detection solution is easy-to-use, and the learning curve is very low. Due to the logical and user-friendly interface of the Leica DSX, Waskita Karya only needed one-day training, which was conducted by Leica Geosystems team.

“从那天开始；我们的内部团队能够正确操作GPR。他们甚至可以教同事使用该系统，”concludes Danardi.