Case Study: Northumbrian Water achieves £1 million savings with Ordnance Survey's Underground Infrastructure Hub

Northumbrian Water saves around £1 million with Ordnance Survey

Northumbrian Water, a utility company serving 4.4 million people, faced the challenge of planning excavations without a complete view of underground infrastructure, which risked costly utility strikes and inefficiencies. They partnered with vendor Ordnance Survey (OS) to create a unified map, using solutions like the OS MasterMap Topography Layer, and needed to establish a data-sharing agreement between numerous commercial and public sector stakeholders.

Ordnance Survey developed the North East Underground Infrastructure Hub, a web interface that integrated data from all parties into a single, accessible system for both desktop and mobile users. This solution allowed different GIS systems to consume the combined data, achieving true interoperability. The result was an estimated £1 million in savings for Northumbrian Water from reduced back-office effort, avoided utility strikes, and fewer abandoned jobs, significantly lessening customer disruption.

Northumbrian Water