Utility asset mapping · Statewide Indiana
Do you know where all of your utilities are?
Most towns can answer that for a lot of the system — and have a few stretches nobody's certain about. That's normal: these systems were built a piece at a time over a century, and the records came along the same way. Some on paper, some on a wall map, some in the head of the operator who's walked every street. We bring it together, verify it in the field, and hand it back as digital data your utility owns.
For municipalities and utilities
Four reasons a town finally maps its system
Mapping tends to sit on the someday list until something makes it urgent. Usually it's one of these.
Your SRF application needs an asset management plan
Indiana's State Revolving Fund requires an asset management plan certification, and a plan starts with knowing what you own and where it is. Communities that can't document their assets can end up unranked on the project priority list — and unranked means unfunded.
Lead service line inventories need field verification
Records rarely settle what a service line is actually made of. We locate and document service lines in the field so your inventory rests on evidence instead of a guess in a card file.
You're responsible for marking your own facilities
Every 811 ticket asks your crew to mark lines from whatever the records show. When the source data is thin, even a careful locate can miss — and improving that source data is the cheapest fix available.
The best map is in one person's head
Every system has an operator who knows which valve is buried under the sidewalk and why the main jogs behind the school. That knowledge is worth preserving. Getting it into the record while he's still there to point at it is the most valuable part of the job.
Two kinds of work
System mapping, and everything else we locate
Utility asset mapping and map conversion
A phased project that turns paper plats, mylar as-builts and institutional memory into a digital asset layer your utility owns and can keep current.
- Structure inventory — valves, hydrants, manholes, curb stops, meter pits, cleanouts
- Attribute capture — size, material, condition, turns-to-close, rim and invert, photos
- Main line verification by electromagnetic designating where records conflict
- Gravity sewer mapping from rim and invert measurements, no tracer wire needed
- Digitizing and geo-referencing your existing paper drawings
- Annual map maintenance so the data doesn't go stale the week after delivery
Private site designating
Conventional locating work on individual sites, priced as half-day and full-day blocks so there's no hourly meter running.
- Private-side lines 811 doesn't mark — past the meter
- Pre-design designating for civil and environmental projects
- Borehole and geotech clearing
- APWA paint and flagging, plus a digital record that outlives the paint
What's under a typical street
A century of infrastructure, stacked in six feet of soil
Water, sewer, gas, electric, fiber and storm — installed by different crews in different decades, each to the standard of its day. Designating sorts out which is which before anyone puts a bucket in the ground.
Illustrative cross-section. Actual depths, spacing and cover vary widely by system, era of installation and local standard — which is exactly why they get verified in the field rather than assumed from a drawing.
How a mapping project runs
Four phases, priced up front
You get a not-to-exceed number before we start, and a deliverable at the end of every phase — not one lump sum at the end of a year.
Records assembly and gap log
We walk the system with your operator, pull together plats, as-builts, 811 history and any existing GIS, and produce a preliminary map showing what's already documented and where the open questions are. Many utilities stop here the first year — having a clear picture is often what makes the case for the rest.
Field capture
Systematic inventory of every structure, zone by zone or basin by basin. RTK GNSS point capture, full attributes, and a photograph of each structure so anyone can identify it later without a site visit.
Line verification
Electromagnetic designating of mains and services where the record drawings are uncertain, contradictory or simply absent. Where a line can't be traced, we document what was attempted and what it would take to find it.
Delivery and handoff
Final data package, exhibit maps, and a working session with your staff so the map gets used instead of filed. Then an optional annual visit to capture what changed.
What you get
Data you own, in the format you already use
Paint fades and flags get mowed. The point of the work is the record that outlasts both.
Maps people can actually read
For superintendents, crews, boards and council members — the version that gets pinned to the wall and opened on a phone in the field.
- Aerial-based exhibit maps with the APWA color legend
- Google Earth files for phones and tablets in the field
- Photo log tied to each captured structure
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Data your engineer can build on
Spatial data with a full attribute table, projected to your coordinate system and delivered in the format your consultant or GIS vendor asks for.
- Shapefiles and file geodatabase for ArcGIS
- CAD linework for AutoCAD and MicroStation
- CSV attribute tables with utility type, size, material, condition and estimated depth
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Documentation that stands up later
A written record of how the data was collected, which is what a funding agency, an insurer or an attorney will eventually ask to see.
- Scope, project limits and records reviewed
- Equipment, frequencies and methods used
- Utility attribute matrix with quality levels assigned per ASCE 38-22 definitions
- Stated limitations and everything that could not be located
Site locating
Single-site work, booked by the block
Half day or full day, quoted before we mobilize. No hourly meter, no surprise invoice.
Up to four hours on site
Mobilization, electromagnetic designating, APWA paint and flagging, field log and photo documentation. Digital mapping available as an add-on.
Up to eight hours on site
Everything in the half day, plus RTK GNSS point capture, digital mapping, export package and the attribute matrix report.
Crew sitting idle
Same-day and next-business-day mobilization when an unknown line stops an excavation. Call or email today.
About Foresight
We already work with Indiana municipalities
Foresight Locating, LLC is owned and operated by Scott Lewis, who also runs Lewis Municipal Sales — a manufacturers' representative business serving Indiana municipalities and utilities. We know how small systems are run, how they're funded, and who has to sign off. Every job is run by the same person who answers the phone: no dispatcher between you and the technician, and no trainee sent to your system.
What we do and don't do
Foresight Locating, LLC provides subsurface utility designating and utility data collection. Field methods, attribute documentation and quality level assignments follow the definitions and methodology described in ASCE/UTL 38-22. Foresight is not a licensed engineering or land surveying firm, does not practice engineering or land surveying, and does not seal, stamp or certify deliverables. Where a sealed subsurface utility engineering deliverable is required, our data is furnished for review and incorporation by your licensed professional of record.
Depths are estimated. Electromagnetic methods indicate approximate depth and are not a substitute for exposing a facility. All designated utilities should be exposed by hand, air or vacuum excavation before mechanized equipment enters the tolerance zone.
Some utilities cannot be located electromagnetically. Non-conductive pipe with no tracer wire or accessible connection point falls outside EM capability. We do not currently offer ground penetrating radar, sewer camera inspection or vacuum excavation, and we'll say so before you book rather than after.
Private designating does not replace 811. Excavators remain responsible for filing their own Indiana 811 tickets under IC 8-1-26.
Get started
Let’s take a look at what you have
Show us how your system is mapped today — paper, GIS, or somewhere in between — and we’ll give you an honest read on where it stands and what it would take to improve it. Twenty minutes, no charge, and the summary is yours to keep either way.