Published: 05. Sep 2024

HeyPipe provides a detailed insight into critical underground infrastructure

Heypipe 3D Illustration

HeyPipe™ is a new digital platform that across all supply types gives unique 3D documentation of the underground infrastructure. Aarhus Vand has founded the company in order to receive better and more valid data.

Aarhus Vand has together with the land surveying company, LE34 and the entrepreneur company, Arkil founded HeyPipe May 2024. HeyPipe will provide detailed insight in to the underground and will thereby provide improved prerequisites for planning a construction project. The goal is especially to avoid unexpacted surprises such as excavation damages that will delay a project.

Peter Hjortdal (1)
We have established HeyPipe to get improved insight into the underground, faster and more valid data that benefit both other pipe owners and our own company
- Peter Hjortdal, Department Head - Climate and Drainage, Aarhus Vand

The thought behind HeyPipe is also that the different pipe owners share data from the underground infrastructure, so that we get a digital crowd-sourcing platform. In other words, the more people who use HeyPipe, the stronger of a tool it becomes.

HeyPipe will lead to less costs for excavation damages

In Denmark we have around 750,000 km buried critical infrastructure that supply the Danish society with electricity, gas, district heating, water and telecommunications services as well as removes waste water. Planning and execution of e.g. cable repairs takes a long time currently because of the many unknowns. Entrepreneurs excavate carefully to avoid damaging the existing cables and pipes.

"On a daily basis considerable ressources are wasted when construction workers are interrupted by buried pipes that are not registered anywhere. That is the problem that we are solvning with HeyPipe which will not just save the clients of frustrations, but also save the community money as well as the environmental impact that is connected with the extra work," says Thomas Boe, board member, HeyPipe

According to Rambøll, it costs us in Denmark 226 mil. DKK yearly in direct expenses to excavation damages (Rambøll, 2016). 

It will be easier to place infrastructure correctly

The principal with HeyPipe is that knowledge of the underground makes it possible to better plan and place infrastructure correctly. HeyPipe is a digital platform that provides point clouds and 3D images of the underground. You can hereby see the conditions and on centimeter-level measure the differences between different pipe owners' infrastructure in the ground. Ground types and eventual high groundwater levels are also information that is available in HeyPipe.

"With HeyPipe, we certainly minimize excavation damage in our construction projects because we gain greater knowledge of the subsoil. The greater the knowledge, the better we can plan our projects and ensure an efficient execution," says Peter Hjortdal, department head, Aarhus Water.

He further explains that nuisances for the surroundings such as the traffic in this way will also be of the shortest possible duration.

Fast documentation of construction work

The advantage is that HeyPipe makes it possible to quickly take pictures of construction work and upload them. At Aarhus Vand, the experience is that information, especially for projects with the waste water network, can take up to 3 months to receive, as a project with e.g. an entire road or area is often completed before the pipe work is registered, checked and handed over to the utility company. This will also be faster with HeyPipe.

Link to website: HeyPipe

What is HeyPipe:
HeyPipe™ converts a video recorded with an ordinary smartphone into a precise 3D point cloud. You start the app and can then film the excavation with a smartphone, which is then uploaded to HeyPipe. After this, as an interested party, you can access all the pictures from the underground that have been taken in the area in question.
HeyPipe 3D point cloud data
3D point cloud data in HeyPipe™ is a digital copy of reality that documents the actual conditions in the ground. Also, the pipes owned by others than the company carrying out the actual construction or repair work. The explanation is that the point cloud shows the entire pipe line compared to traditional surveying, where you go out and measure the newly laid waste water pipe - and only that and not what else lies in the form of fibre, water pipes or electricity cables.
Peter Hjortdal

Peter Hjortdal

Department Head of Drainage & Climate