Atkins has been appointed by the UK government’s Geospatial Commission to help create a digital map of underground pipes and cables which ministers say will revolutionise construction and development across the country.

The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) forms part of the government’s efforts to build back better and greener and speed up the delivery of housing and infrastructure projects from design to build. Fast and secure access to data will save utilities companies and local authorities time and money, help improve efficiencies in construction and development, reduce disruption, and improve workers’ safety.

Atkins, working with UK mapping agency Ordnance Survey, and global leader in geospatial data management 1Spatial, will deliver the build phase of the project to create a ground-breaking nationwide geospatial platform to view all underground asset data, helping to tackle the £2.4bn in lost value to the economy each year from accidental utility strikes.

Guy Ledger, digital director at Atkins, said: “By harnessing technology to enable data sharing, we’re able to transform how we deliver projects and infrastructure by unlocking improvements in safety, certainty and efficiency. We now look forward to working with the Geospatial Commission and partners to develop the National Underground Asset Register – a truly exciting and transformative project for the infrastructure sector.”

The digital map – which will be built over the next three years, starting in the north east of England, Wales and London – adds to Atkins’ portfolio of digitally-driven planning solutions, including the London Planning Data Hub – a real-time planning data service which is accessible to the public.