12 November 2019 – Bringing together every part of an infrastructure project from start to finish means taking an holistic view from above. But that will only get you so far when many major hurdles often lie underground.

It is the challenge for global engineering, design, and advisory company Aurecon’s newly appointed Global Service Leader for Land Infrastructure & Spatial Insights Rebecca Strang who leads a group of experts that help create context around existing built and natural environments to ensure the right design decisions are made at the start of each project.

The newly created portfolio of services led by Rebecca brings together Aurecon’s existing expertise in civil infrastructure, land and spatial surveying, and spatial information management and analysis, and harnesses their combined capabilities, which underpin all infrastructure design work.

“Having the right digital 3D information sets you off on the right foot so better decisions can be made,” Rebecca said.

“Our team brings together many different skillsets to provide a seamless delivery and coordinate throughout the lifecycle of a project.

“It’s a true consultant offering; understanding the client’s drivers, helping them select the right land, understanding the regulatory processes and visualising the context that the project sits in and then taking that knowledge and managing it from start to finish and beyond into the asset management and maintenance.”

One of the major issues facing contractors when they are constructing a new road, tunnel or rail line is understanding what utilities are below ground that could affect the project. The existing network is becoming more and more of a challenge, according to Rebecca, as our urban centres are becoming denser.

“Often you don’t know the full extent of the existing underground utility networks. We help to manage the risk around this underground infrastructure by working with network utility providers, systematically collecting the information and helping clients to store it, so they know what’s there,” Rebecca said.

“We provide the upfront 3D spatial asset capture and then manage the information in a geospatial platform that holds all the information together in a visual way as well as managing the integration of new information.

“After the assets have been built, we then go out and survey them, so the client has good records of the completed assets. We also collect information that relates to the new assets to assist with asset management and maintenance.”

Rebecca started her career at Aurecon as an undergraduate surveyor in the Wellington office in New Zealand in 2001 and has honed her expertise and client insight to become a leader in the geospatial sector. She is currently the President of Survey and Spatial New Zealand.

For the past two-and-a-half years, Rebecca has been the Digital Practice Leader for Aurecon’s New Zealand region. This experience has provided valuable insights into the challenges the infrastructure sector faces with digital transformation, particularly in relation to digitising assets and information management, and how Aurecon can help find solutions to these.

Aurecon’s Managing Director for Infrastructure Ben Stapleton said having a dedicated Global Service Leader for Land Infrastructure & Spatial Insights would drive rigour and increase clarity around whole of information management processes on projects.

“It’s all very well designing something, but you have to have the expertise to know that what you have designed can be constructed,” Ben said.

“A lot of underground utilities have been recorded based on a pdf plan and this is often of dubious quality whereas if you can survey the location precisely and record it, the quality will be much more accurate.

“We are using technology that allows us to more accurately and appropriately locate underground infrastructure and position it. We can model it in 3D and have all the information of the materials associated with it and this is delivering real whole of project value.”