Quality Levels for underground asset locating was developed as part of the Australian Standards -5488.
We use standards everyday in many different fields of work from building a house, constructing a road or designing a consumer product. This ensures that everyone works to the same standard at any given time but it also creates a form of repeatability, allowing us to achieve the same workmanship over and over.
AS-5488
QL-A – Verified Potholed +/- 50mm.
Asset Visually sighted by means of potholing, this is the most absolute best result.
QL-B – Reliable electronic location. 300mm Horizontal, 500mm Vertical.
Asset is located with an electronic locator
QL-C – Identify buried assets by surface features but not able to achieve QL-B.
Using physical features onsite i.e: valve in ground, post or pit.
QL-D – Identify asset in the vicinity by plans but not able to achieve QL-B.
An example of this would be using measurements on plans and transferring this to the ground service, due to not being located with a locator no depth to the asset will be given.