Cost Savings for Gas Companies
There have never been more cost-saving reasons to improve utility coordination with municipalities, highway agencies, and other utility companies. Envista’s technology-based approach to utility coordination offers gas companies four major areas of cost savings.
Reduced Paving Costs –Web-based project coordination creates opportunities for the increased use of low-cost temporary paving patches and the decreased need for expensive curb-to-curb paving. For example, if you can identify that a street is going to be repaved in the near future, you have an opportunity to do gas pipe repairs prior to repaving, thereby saving the cost of full pavement restoration. With paving costs approaching 40% of construction budgets, the savings potential for gas companies is substantial.
Managing “Protected Streets” - Many municipalities now routinely designate newly paved roads as protected streets with excavation moratoriums for periods of 5 years. Without advance notice of protected streets, gas operations are often blindsided and can incur excessive paving expenses or higher impact fees for service extensions and maintenance. Using Envista, gas operations can view upcoming paving projects and can plan timely leak surveys to prioritize and perform leak repairs needed on streets that will be protected. By being able to avoid mandated leak repairs on newly paved, protected streets, gas operations can significantly reduce costly curb-to-curb repaving.
Reduced Carbon Emissions - By making it possible to reduce street cuts by up to 27% through coordination between gas companies and municipalities, Envista is an “Upstream Green” technology. Based on roadway and construction statistics from the City of Baltimore, for example, the reduction in carbon emissions related to less paving can equal 14,734 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
