Richmond Hill, a rapidly growing community near Toronto, decided to convert Hall Street into a curb-and-gutter cross-section to accommodate residential development.

Utilizing Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) technology, a $11,000 study revealed the need to relocate a gas main inside the roadway, highlighting the town's foresight in addressing potential conflicts with existing utilities and estimating a 3.0 return on investment.

Richmond Hill is a fast growing community near Toronto, Ontario.

To support rapid residential development in the area, it was decided to convert Hall Street, a rural roadway with drainage ditches, into a curb-and-gutter cross-section.

The plan also called for the removal of the drainage ditches. Due to previous successes with SUE technology, the town decided to consider the use of SUE on all projects where significant potential for conflict with existing utilities existed.

The SUE study revealed that a gas main marked to be 6-ft. off the curb was actually located inside the roadway, and thus, required relocation prior to the commencement of the transportation project.

The cost of the SUE study was $11,000, and the estimated return on the investment associated with the SUE investigation was 3.0.

Downtown areas/suburbs, Cost, direct, ROI (Return on investment), Savings, Gas lines, Inaccurate (wrong location/depth of shown utilities)