UK SAFE DIGGING INDUSTRY BREAKS RECORDS IN 2022

LSBUD, the UK’s leading online safe digging resource, finished 2022 with 3.75 million search enquiries for underground pipes and cables passing through its central system. This is a 12 percent increase on the previous year.

The portal also registered 43,190 new Users in 2022. This represents a 14 percent increase compared to 2021, and is 35 percent up on 2020.

Richard Broome, MD at LSBUD, comments: “In 2022, our portal received more search enquiries than we take breaths. It’s absolutely extraordinary. At the start of 2022, our aim was to break through the 3.5 million enquiries barrier, so to achieve 3.75 million is credit to those safe digging industries who are more committed to best practice than ever before.

“People operating within the farming, construction, highways, telecoms, water, gas and electricity sectors need to be praised for their part in this substantial growth, as do UK consumers who are increasingly undertaking home projects with greater care than ever before.”

Growth in coverage was also seen across all industries, in particular the gas sector, with Northern Gas Networks joining the collaborative portal in 2022. This means LSBUD now has complete coverage of the UK’s major gas distribution networks, with 100 percent of them collaboratively sharing their data on the free-to-use, central portal.

Fibre networks also jumped on the safe digging momentum, with Voneus, Ogi, Wildanet and Toob joining the likes of broadband key players Gigaclear, Gamma,