Breaking News at the CGA Expo
April is Safe Digging Month ‒ for good reason. As the construction season ramps up, the number of utility strikes increases. According to the Common Ground Alliance (CGA), damages to underground utilities cost the U.S. an estimated $30 billion ‒ most caused by unintended strikes to utilities during excavation for construction projects. Unfortunately, few people are aware of this on-going problem until they lose power or internet when a backhoe strikes a cable – or when a gas line is struck, and the area is evacuated.
By Mike Klonsinski, Berntsen President
April is Safe Digging Month ‒ for good reason. As the construction season ramps up, the number of utility strikes increases. According to the Common Ground Alliance (CGA), damages to underground utilities cost the U.S. an estimated $30 billion ‒ most caused by unintended strikes to utilities during excavation for construction projects. Unfortunately, few people are aware of this on-going problem until they lose power or internet when a backhoe strikes a cable – or when a gas line is struck, and the area is evacuated.
CGA promotes safe digging by sharing practices and technologies that help prevent costly utility strikes. Additionally, the organization is a trusted source for data related to excavation damage across industries and regions.
Berntsen is a member of CGA and supports its goal of promoting safer digging practices by enhancing existing processes with existing technology. Its InfraMarker Connected RFID amplifies the power of GIS by connecting it with buried utilities via mobile apps.
Important new study results
Berntsen will be introducing the results of a seven-year longitudinal study of its Connected RFID technology at the upcoming CGA Annual Conference & Expo April 17 – 20 in Orlando, Florida. This presentation is a major step in addressing the national challenge of reducing costly utility strikes while improving the data of GIS-based infrastructure asset management platforms.
This study was produced in collaboration with Staking University and leverages Esri’s powerful ArcGIS platform. “We’re proud to be part of a movement to drive greater safety and efficiency in underground utility management,” said Mike Klonsinski, Berntsen president. “We’re especially excited to showcase the combination of technologies such as RFID (asset identification), magnetic locating and Esri’s ArcGIS system in our InfraMarker solution.”
The study findings and qualitative results will be presented in a session titled:
The presenters are experts in their respective fields
Mike Klonsinski, Berntsen president
Matt Streets, Planet Underground managing editor, a Staking University affiliate
Zachary Aguayo, Esri Senior Solution Engineer
Date & time:
Date: April 20th
Time: 10:15 – 11:00 am
Location: Rooms Bonaire 5-8 in the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.
The presenters will cover the study results and their implications for utilities and other infrastructure assets.
Study Background
Berntsen collaborated on the study with Staking University (SU). Staking University is a state-of-the-art locator training program that focuses on utilities, municipalities, and private organizations – any organization that must locate and maintain buried infrastructure. Its Manteno, Illinois campus (that encompasses more than 20 acres of live and abandoned utilities) was the setting for the study. These real-world conditions make it the perfect site for staff training and for field testing products.
We hope to see you at this important meeting that seeks a common ground for organizations involved in building and maintaining the nation’s essential infrastructure.
Come and see us at the CGA exhibit hall:
Berntsen Booth 105
Staking University, Booth 713
The InfraMarker® RFID App Now Live in the Esri ArcGIS Marketplace
Madison, Wisconsin – March 7, 2022: Berntsen International, Inc., was recognized with the High Potential Award at the 2022 Esri Partner Conference (EPC) held in Palm Springs, California March 5–7, 2022. This award was presented to Berntsen International Inc., for the substantial opportunity for growth represented by its InfraMarker® Connected RFID™ solution that links the power of ArcGIS with RFID asset marking to deliver more accurate and efficient field operations.
MADISON, Wisc., June 23, 2022 - Berntsen International, a leading manufacturer of infrastructure marking products, announces that its InfraMarker RFID App is now live in the Esri ArcGIS Marketplace. The InfraMarker RFID App provides the connection between passive UHF RFID marking technology and Esri’s ArcGIS software. This linking of RFID and GIS with the app enables faster, more reliable asset tracking and management.
Passive UHF RFID is the fastest growing asset identification technology in the world and used to verify, trace, and track products in inventory, retail, manufacturing, utilities, and construction industries. With the InfraMarker RFID app, those RFID-marked products can now be directly integrated with the power of GIS and asset management software.
“ArcGIS is a powerful solution for infrastructure management, made even more valuable when coupled with RFID asset identification technology. We are proud to extend Esri’s ArcGIS software with InfraMarker RFID and provide this additional capability for Esri partners and users”, said Mike Klonsinski, president of Berntsen.
InfraMarker, a division of Berntsen International, is the leader in connected RFID-enabled infrastructure asset marking products and software. The InfraMarker RFID app connects RFID marked products with GIS and Asset Management software while InfraMarker RFID-enabled marking products and equipment are specially designed to work with the app for management of utility infrastructure such as stormwater, gas, electrical and fiber.
The InfraMarker RFID App is available on the ArcGIS Marketplace. The ArcGIS Marketplace is a curated digital geospatial channel of system ready apps, content, solutions, and professional services from Esri’s ecosystem of partners for ArcGIS users to identify and discover additional resources for ArcGIS software.
Link to the Marketplace listing here: InfraMarker RFID App
About Berntsen International, Inc. and its InfraMarker® Solution:
Berntsen International has been a Madison, WI manufacturer of survey and utility marking products since 1972 and a pioneer in developing RFID-GIS connecting solutions under the InfraMarker brand for more than a decade. Berntsen has been an Esri Silver Partner for more than 10 years. Visit Inframarker.com for more information and to purchase an introductory InfraMarker RFID package.
CONTACT:
Kari Campbell, Public Relations, Berntsen International, Inc.
Phone: 608.443.2772
Email: kcampbell@berntsen.com
It’s Safe Digging Month - for good reason
As surveyors intimately understand, it’s very important to know what’s below. Your life could depend on it. National Safe Digging Month was created in 2008 by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to bring visibility to protecting workers, utilities and the public by working to prevent utility strikes during excavation. This group is comprised of companies and individuals in every facet of the underground utility industry, including Berntsen.
Blog by Emily Pierce, PLS, CFedS
As anyone involved in construction intimately understands, it’s very important to know what’s below. Your life could depend on it. National Safe Digging Month was created in 2008 by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to bring visibility to protecting workers, utilities and the public by working to prevent utility strikes during excavation. This group is comprised of companies and individuals in every facet of the underground utility industry, including Berntsen.
It’s interesting to note that although utility strikes are incredibly damaging and expensive (costing an estimated $30 billion annually in societal costs that include direct [facility repair] and indirect [property damage, medical expenses, business closures, etc.*]), there is no nationwide approach to marking, mapping and locating underground utilities. There’s also no requirement to report excavation damages to any centralized clearinghouse, except for the gas industry that reports major incidents to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). That’s why the CGA has developed a voluntary process for reporting strikes and damages.
The organization’s latest report presents the data of this voluntary reporting (and data from the PHMSA) in a very thorough way that looks at every aspect of utility strikes. They’ve found that “year over year, hundreds of thousands of damages occur, and most of them can be attributed to the same handful of persistent root causes.**” With the recent, massive investment in infrastructure, the overall trend of rising damages will likely continue.
The latest Damage Information Report Tool (DIRT) Report (from 2020 data reported in 2021) reveals some interesting information.
Figure 8 above shows the same information for 2020 only. Beginning in 2019 and continuing in 2020, the “big three” root cause groups – No Locate Request, Excavating Issues and Locating Issues – are approximately equal.
U.S. damages were down by about 12% in 2020 vs. 2019, likely due to the initial pandemic response that slowed the trend towards more construction projects. An analysis shows that even though the numbers of reported incidents were down, the same root causes persisted. Twenty-six root causes are tracked year-over-year and five of these account for 70% of the damage events. These five are:
Failure to notify the one call center/811 (the largest root cause of damages)
Excavator dug prior to verifying marks by test-hole (pothole)
Failure to maintain clearance
Abandoned facilities
Locator error
It’s pretty clear that lack of due diligence is behind many of the strikes. Construction projects often have pretty tight deadlines and perhaps field operators don’t feel they have time to call 811 (or maybe they don’t even know 811 is available). Even if a locator has been called, there’s no guarantee that the locator has accurately marked the underground facilities.
Technology to the rescue!
It doesn’t seem like this issue should be impossible to resolve – with today’s technology, solutions are available. Berntsen’s InfraMarker Connected RFID is a solution that could make a huge impact on reducing utility strikes, and it’s already being used in by pipeline companies and in data centers to mark underground utilities. It uses RFID and middleware to tie physical assets to data in Esri’s ArcGIS using Field Maps or Survey123.
As more and more utilities and municipalities adopt GIS, Connected RFID is available to verify location and precisely identify what facilities and conflicts exist underground before excavation. RFID can be read through soil, asphalt and concrete, so anything marked can be located and identified, simply by scanning the RFID marker and accessing the record through Esri’s data collection tools. Data can be shared between utilities, making this essential information available to all.
As more and more infrastructure projects get underway, it’s more important than ever to prevent damaging utility strikes. Connected RFID is leading the way in future-enabling connectivity of any underground (or above ground) asset.
Questions? Contact us.
Berntsen International, Inc. Receives Esri’s High Potential Award for Substantial Opportunities for Growth at the Esri Partner Conference
Madison, Wisconsin – March 7, 2022: Berntsen International, Inc., was recognized with the High Potential Award at the 2022 Esri Partner Conference (EPC) held in Palm Springs, California March 5–7, 2022. This award was presented to Berntsen International Inc., for the substantial opportunity for growth represented by its InfraMarker® Connected RFID™ solution that links the power of ArcGIS with RFID asset marking to deliver more accurate and efficient field operations.
Madison, Wisconsin – March 7, 2022: Berntsen International, Inc., was recognized with the High Potential Award at the 2022 Esri Partner Conference (EPC) held in Palm Springs, California March 5–7, 2022. This award was presented to Berntsen International Inc., for the substantial opportunity for growth represented by its InfraMarker® Connected RFID™ solution that links the power of ArcGIS with RFID asset marking to deliver more accurate and efficient field operations.
RFID is the fastest-growing asset identification technology in the world and is ideal for marking infrastructure products such as valves, splices, poles and more. The InfraMarker RFID app enables a direct connection between ArcGIS mobile solutions and RFID-marked assets. This simple approach improves asset locating and identification, speeds inspection and maintenance workflows, reduces errors, and supports compliance requirements.
Esri is the global leader in location intelligence with a network of over 2,700 partners around the world. The award winners are organizations that have demonstrated innovative and creative ways to solve complex problems by using Esri’s ArcGIS software and those who have done exceptional work in advancing geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Berntsen International, Inc. was one of 26 Esri partners that received an achievement award at the conference.
“Esri congratulates Berntsen International, Inc. on their 2022 EPC award in recognition of their innovative work leveraging ArcGIS software,” said Robert Laudati, Director of Global Partners and Alliances at Esri. “We are proud to partner with Berntsen to foster the use of GIS technology in support of our mutual customers.”
“Berntsen’s partnership with Esri is the cornerstone of advancing a world that uses RFID technology to tie physical field assets to the digital representation of those assets in the GIS,” said Mike Klonsinski, president of Berntsen International, Inc. “This award recognizes the importance of that future as well as InfraMarker’s leadership in providing the software, products, and solutions for a Connected RFID world.”
About Esri
Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, helps customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969 in Redlands, California, USA, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations globally and in over 200,000 institutions in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofits, and universities. Esri has regional offices, international distributors, and partners providing local support in over 100 countries on six continents. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most innovative solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.
About Berntsen International, Inc.
Since 1972, Berntsen International has provided high quality marking products to define the boundaries and infrastructure of the world. Berntsen marking products have been deployed throughout the world and its survey caps and monuments are recognized as the global standard.
Berntsen’s commitment to better infrastructure marking is taken to the next level with its innovative InfraMarker line of software, products, and solutions. The InfraMarker approach enables a connected infrastructure world by linking GIS platforms with RFID asset marking technology. Connected RFID infrastructure improves safety and field operations management for utilities, municipalities, and other organizations desiring better field asset management.
Berntsen is a Silver Partner in the Esri Partner Network, and InfraMarker RFID is an approved ArcGIS System Ready Specialty accessible on Esri's ArcGIS Marketplace.
CONTACT:
Kari Campbell, Public Relations, Berntsen International, Inc.
Phone: 608.443.2772
Email: email@berntsen.com