Case Study: Questar Gas achieves instant, 4‑inch‑accurate pipeline mapping and dramatic time savings with Trimble GNSS solutions

When the GNSS Mapping App You Want Doesn’t Exist, Make One

Questar Gas, a natural-gas distributor serving Utah and parts of neighboring states, faced rapid regional growth and the need for precise as-built pipeline records to support maintenance, contractor payments and damage prevention. Their previous workflow relied on tape measures and hand-drawn sketches that took up to eight weeks to finalize, was error-prone as local features shifted, and left the company unable to reliably locate buried plastic pipe or respond quickly to incidents.

Working with CartoPac and using Trimble GNSS hardware, Questar built a mobile mapping app that enforces complete data collection, captures georeferenced photos, and delivers real‑time or postprocessed GNSS positions to their Esri GIS with 4‑ to 6‑inch accuracy. The new system cuts site collection to about ten minutes with maps available instantly, has mapped 49,853 services and 2,583 km of mains since 2012, and has measurably boosted productivity, data quality, safety, compliance and response times.