Before You Dig Australia launches digital utility portal

A new digital platform, the Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) Digital Utility Portal, is being piloted to improve access to underground utility information. Developed through the Transport Australia Fellowship, the tool centralizes data to help planners, designers, and contractors identify buried infrastructure more efficiently.

The portal is currently being utilized across Brisbane’s Olympic infrastructure program, as well as major projects in Perth and Western Sydney. Industry experts suggest the platform could reduce the time required to interpret utility maps from a week to approximately one hour.

By improving accuracy, the technology aims to mitigate the impact of underground utility strikes, which occur more than 15,000 times annually in Australia. Transport Australia estimates the portal could save the industry approximately $22 million and 180,000 working hours each year.