Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) in Kelowna, BC

Standard locates serve excavation safety; SUE serves design. The ASCE 38 framework attaches a defined quality level to every utility shown, letting engineers allocate risk contractually and decide precisely where to pay for QL-A certainty. On capital projects, SUE routinely returns multiples of its cost in avoided redesigns and claims.

We scope and supervise QL-A test holes and survey the exposed utilities; the daylighting itself is performed by partnered hydrovac crews. One contract, one deliverable, with each party doing what they're equipped for.

Sealed-format CAD with utilities attributed by quality level, a basis-of-investigation report, and test-hole logs for any QL-A points — the package engineers of record expect to reference in contract documents.

Sometimes — and we'll say so. Many sites are served perfectly by QL-B mapping without the SUE formalism. The free consult sorts which investigation level your project and its risk profile actually need.

Only partially. BC 1 Call marks registered public utilities up to your property line — free, and you should always use it. Everything inside the line is private and unmarked: irrigation, gas runs to outbuildings, landscape lighting, old septic, abandoned services. Kelowna's stock — lakefront estates with pools and extensive irrigation, orchard and vineyard parcels, and a fast-rising downtown tower skyline. — is exactly where those private surprises accumulate. Private locating closes that gap before you dig.

Kelowna sits on dry glaciolacustrine silts and sandy benches — classic Okanagan GPR country. Dry silts and sands give the deepest, cleanest GPR returns in BC — 3–4 m is routine. Irrigation saturation creates local wet anomalies that are themselves diagnostic of leaks. Where local conditions limit one technology, the survey leans on the others — EM tracing, sonde work, and acoustic methods — so the locate objective is met regardless of soil.

Kelowna is inside our standing Okanagan coverage — typical scheduling is 24–72 hours, with same-day service often possible during business hours (Mon–Sat, 8am–6pm Pacific). Pricing follows our province-wide structure with no regional premium; the free phone consult produces a firm number in about five minutes: 604-239-9934.