Methods, apparatus and systems for generating searchable electronic records of underground facility locate and/or marking operations

A method for generating a searchable electronic record of a locate operation performed by a locate technician, the method comprising:nA) displaying, on a display device, a grid;B) adding to the displayed grid, by the locate technician electronically drawing on the displayed grid via a user input device associated with the display device, at least one digital representation of at least one physical locate mark so as to generate a marked-up grid including the grid and the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, wherein:nthe at least one physical locate mark includes at least one of non-white paint and a non-white flag; andthe at least one physical locate mark is applied by the locate technician on ground, pavement or other surface during the locate operation, the locate operation being performed after generation of and pursuant to a locate request ticket relating to a dig area that is planned to be excavated or disturbed during prospective excavation activities, the locate operation comprising, in response to the locate request ticket, providing at least one visible warning to an excavator performing the prospective excavation activities, using the at least one physical locate mark, of a presence or an affirmative absence of at least one underground facility at the dig area specified in the locate request ticket; andC) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up grid so as to generate the searchable electronic record of the locate operation.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed on at least one processing unit, perform a method of generating a searchable electronic record of a locate operation performed by a locate technician, the method comprising:nA) rendering, on a display device, a grid;B) adding to the displayed grid, by the locate technician electronically drawing on the displayed grid at least one digital representation of at least one physical locate mark so as to generate a marked-up grid including the grid and the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, wherein:nthe at least one physical locate mark includes at least one of non-white paint and a non-white flag; andthe at least one physical locate mark is applied by the locate technician on ground, pavement or other surface during the locate operation, the locate operation being performed after generation of and pursuant to a locate request ticket relating to a dig area that is planned to be excavated or disturbed during prospective excavation activities, the locate operation comprising, in response to the locate request ticket, providing at least one visible warning to an excavator performing the prospective excavation activities, using the at least one physical locate mark, of a presence or an affirmative absence of at least one underground facility at the dig area specified in the locate request ticket; andC) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up grid so as to generate the searchable electronic record of the locate operation.

An apparatus for facilitating generation of a searchable electronic record of a locate operation performed by a locate technician, the apparatus comprising:na communication interface;a display device;a user input device;a memory to store processor-executable instructions; anda processing unit coupled to the communication interface, the display device, the user input device, and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit, the processing unit:ncontrols the display device to display a grid;acquires, by the locate technician electronically drawing on the displayed grid via the user interface, user input relating to a geographic location of at least one physical locate mark;controls the display device to display a marked-up grid including the grid and at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark based at least in part on the user input, wherein:nthe at least one physical locate mark includes at least one of non-white paint and a non-white flag; andthe at least one physical locate mark is applied by the locate technician on ground, pavement or other surface during the locate operation, the locate operation being performed after generation of and pursuant to a locate request ticket relating to a dig area that is planned to be excavated or disturbed during prospective excavation activities, the locate operation comprising, in response to the locate request ticket, providing at least one visible warning to an excavator performing the prospective excavation activities, using the at least one physical locate mark, of a presence or an affirmative absence of at least one underground facility at the dig area specified in the locate request ticket; andcontrols the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the marked-up grid so as to generate the searchable electronic record of the locate operation.

A method for generating a searchable electronic record of a locate operation performed by a locate technician, the method comprising:nA) electronically receiving a digital image of a geographic area comprising a dig area, at least a portion of the received digital image being displayed on a display device;B) adding to the displayed digital image:n(i) by the locate technician electronically drawing on the displayed grid via a user input device associated with the display device, at least one digital representation of at least one physical locate mark, wherein:nthe at least one physical locate mark includes at least one of non-white paint and a non-white flag;the at least one physical locate mark is applied by the locate technician on ground, pavement or other surface during the locate operation, the locate operation being performed after generation of and pursuant to a locate request ticket relating to a dig area that is planned to be excavated or disturbed during prospective excavation activities, the locate operation comprising, in response to the locate request ticket, providing at least one visible warning to an excavator performing the prospective excavation activities, using the at least one physical locate mark, of a presence or an affirmative absence of at least one underground facility at the dig area specified in the locate request ticket; and(ii) an indication of a distance between a physical landmark and the at least one physical locate mark so as to generate a marked-up digital image; andC) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to generate the searchable electronic record of the locate operation.