AD-SDI DATA CONTENT STANDARD

UTILITY CORRIDOR

Working Draft

January 2010

Prepared by
Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC)
Abu Dhabi, UAE
 AD-SDI Data Content Standard

REVISION HISTORY

Revision # Reason Effective Date

1 Original Draft July 2009

2 Revised Nov 2009

3 Revised Jan 2010

DISCUSSION HISTORY

Discussion # With Date Summary

1 AAN-TPD: AR 29 Jul 2009 Utility corridor design procedure.

2 UPC: AA 23 Nov 2009 Expanded the Corridor Type code list

to cover more types. Refined the
corridor numbering to show corridor
width.

3 ADM 23 Dec 2009 Enhanced to cover multi-utility

conduits / structures. Added storm
water in addition to storm water main.

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Table of Contents
1 Introduction...................................................................................................4

2 Scope, purpose, and application...................................................................4

2.1. Scope................................................................................................................................4
2.2. Purpose............................................................................................................................4
2.3. Application......................................................................................................................5

3 Terms and definitions....................................................................................6

4 Symbols, abbreviated terms, and notations................................................8

5 Content Model...............................................................................................9
5.1. General............................................................................................................................9
5.2. Utility Service Providers..............................................................................................12
5.3. Utility Corridor Data Structure..................................................................................12

6 UML Model..................................................................................................14
6.1. UML Model for Utility Corridor................................................................................14

7 Data Dictionary............................................................................................15
7.1. Data Dictionary for Utility Corridor..........................................................................15

Appendix: Utility Corridor Design Process...................................................18

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1 Introduction
The primary purpose of this part of the FGDS Data Content Standard is to support the
exchange of utility corridor data. This part seeks to establish a common baseline for the
semantic content of utility corridor databases for public agencies and private enterprises. It
also seeks to simplify the exchange of utility corridor data among entities within the AD-SDI
community. Benefits of adopting this part of the standard include the long-term improvement
of the utility corridor data within the AD-SDI community and avoidance of data duplication.

The FGDS Data Content Standard for utility corridor data is developed with a certain
philosophy which includes the following concepts:

 Keep it simple; have the fewest data elements possible, but make those data elements
mandatory. This encourages use of the part.

 Use single data types, for example, coordinate types. Different organizations store
their data or make them available using a variety of data types, for example, latitude
longitude, UTM coordinates, Nahrwan datum, WGS84 datum and so on. Because the
data provider, the organization creating the data, is the one most knowledgeable about
their data, they should be responsible for converting their data into this single data
type. Multiple data types would make the part less useful to data users.

 Require metadata supporting how the utility corridor data was compiled and how their
corresponding accuracy values were estimated.

2 Scope, purpose, and application

2.1. Scope

Utility corridor data are fundamental to many GIS applications. They are normally
considered key elements of base maps and serves as essential reference data in this context.
The reliable functioning of the increasingly complex, inter-connected, and inter-dependent
utility infrastructures including electric, water, and gas supply systems, wastewater systems,
and communications is vital for the security, economic prosperity, and social well-being of
the Emirate.

2.2. Purpose

A utility corridor refers to a strip of land of variable width which is physically and
environmentally suited for siting of different utility facilities such as sanitary and storm
sewers, water lines, gas lines, sewer force mains, buried electric power distribution lines and
buried telephone, cable TV or telecommunication lines. Utility corridors are identified to

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indicate the preferred location for these facilities. They are present in public right of ways,
including streets or roads, as well as on the properties being served by the utilities. In the
context of AD-SDI, this document defines the utility corridor data theme to include those
geographic entities that are explicitly designated for siting of different utility facilities.

2.3. Application

This part of the FGDS Data Content Standard is intended to facilitate a common
methodology to manage and share utility corridor datasets among the AD-SDI community.

The data set contains sub-corridors of allocated widths for Electricity, Water, Telephone,
Natural Gas, Irrigation, Sewerage, Street Light, Storm Water, Storm Water Main, and District
Cooling facilities.

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3 Terms and definitions

The following definitions clarify the subject of the Standard:

• Joint trenching: The process by which all utility lines are installed at one time in a
common trench, with positive impacts on safety, customer service, and construction. In
underground trenching installations, each utility typically digs and installs its lines
independently.

• Multi-duct conduit: A single conduit with multiple interior ducts for the accommodation
of multiple utility lines. The compatibility of utilities is considered for placement within a
multi-duct conduit.

• Utility corridor: An area of highway right of way (ROW) designated or used for the joint
location of utilities. Within a utility corridor, each type of utility is allocated its own sub-
corridor.

• Utility corridor structure: A joint-use facility or conduit constructed or installed

longitudinally within a highway ROW that can accommodate a variety of utilities, to
minimize congestion of utilities within the ROW and to facilitate co-location,
maintenance, and access to utilities. One potential benefit of a utility corridor structure is
the co-location of utilities within one structure, the location and size of which is
thoroughly documented, thereby reducing the likelihood of damage during construction
or maintenance activities within the ROW. In addition, locating utilities within one
structure can reduce construction delays.

Utility corridor structures may be small structures with limited accessibility provided at
designated intervals, or large structures that provide a corridor as a walkway throughout
the facility, as illustrated below.

Figure 1: Example of a Small Structure with limited Accessibility

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Figure 2: Examples of Large Structures with walkway Accessibility

The utility corridor structures may also be utilized in special situations for transverse
installation across a transportation facility, such as under a bridge deck. Other common
names for a utility corridor structure include utility closet, utility tunnel, utility corridor
gallery, utility tray, utilidor, and utility support structure.
The combination of utilities allowed in the utility corridor and utility corridor structure is
covered by the utility corridor policy, which will also cover the spacing or location
requirements that would govern the placement of various types of utilities within an
enclosed structure.

• Utility Corridor Policy: An organizational policy that encourages or mandates the use of
utility corridor structures in areas with congested ROW. This policy is typically part of
the entity’s Utility Accommodation Policy, Utility Relocation Policy, or similar policy
governing the relocation of utilities.

• Utility Accommodation Policy (UAP): An organizational policy that provides the means
for consistent interpretation, application, and enforcement of right-of-way utility
accommodation decisions. The policy also defines the accommodation strategies such as
joint trenching, multi-duct conduit, and utility corridor structure. It is based upon national
standards for safety for both the utilities and the highway facility that they occupy.

• Right of Way: The area in, on, upon, above, beneath, within, along, across, under, or
over the dedicated public streets, pavements, roads, lanes, ways, alleys, boulevards, and
places that are owned and operated by a Government entity.

• Clearance: The distance between the utility sub-corridor and the building limit, or road
limit, etc.

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4 Symbols, abbreviated terms, and notations

The following symbols, abbreviations, and notations are applicable to this document.
Symbols, abbreviations, and notations applicable to multiple parts are listed in the Base
Document.

AADC Al Ain Distribution Company

ADCO Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations

ADDC Abu Dhabi Distribution Company

ADNOC Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

ADNOC Distribution Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for Distribution

ADWEA Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority

CWMAD Center of Waste Management Abu Dhabi

DOT Department of Transport, Abu Dhabi

Du Integrated Telecom Service Provider, UAE

Etisalat Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, UAE

GASCO Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd.

IPIC International Petroleum Investment Company, Abu Dhabi

MASDAR Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company

ROW Right of Way

Signal Corps UAE Signal Corps, Abu Dhabi

TABREED National Central Cooling Company (PJSC)

TAKREER Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company

TRANSCO Abu Dhabi Transmission & Dispatch Company

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5 Content Model

5.1. General

Urban Planning Council and the Municipalities of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Al Gharbia are
responsible for the design of utility corridors.

UPC provides guidance to both the Municipalities and the Utility providers as to the type and
location of major utilities to be developed over the next twenty years, in alignment with
Urban Structure Framework Plan 2030. UPC also prepares the Utility Corridors Location
and Design to be implemented by the Municipalities and Utility providers. The
Municipalities monitor the implementation of the utility corridors. Municipalities and Utility
providers also participate in the planning process.

Utility corridors may exist along the right of way on either side of a road or underneath the
road surface. A utility corridor accommodates multiple utilities. The diagrams below show
typical utility corridor cross-sections with sub-corridors designated for different utility types.

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Figure 3: Cross-section of a Utility Corridor for a Local Road

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Figure 4: Cross-section of a Utility Corridor for a Major Arterial Road

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5.2. Utility Service Providers

The agencies responsible for various utility services in Abu Dhabi are listed in the following
table:

Table 1: Utility Providers and Utility Types

Entity Name Utility Service
ADCO, ADNOC, IPIC Crude Oil
ADDC Low Voltage (22 kV and lower) power distribution
ADNOC, Dolphin, GASCO Natural Gas Transmission
CWMAD Vacuum System for Waste Management
DOT Intelligent Traffic System’s Fiber Optic lines
Etisalat and Du Telecommunication cables
Signal Corps Fiber Optic lines for communication
TABREED District Cooling
TAKREER Treated Oil or refined oil such as diesel and aviation fuel
TRANSCO High Voltage (132 kV and higher) power transmission

5.3. Utility Corridor Data Structure

The utility corridor is modeled as a polygon feature class and it is reserved for one of three
corridor reservation types: Road Service Reservation, Building Service Reservation, or
Special Service Reservation. Within the utility corridor, sub-corridors with specified widths
are defined for different utility corridor types. Multiple utilities may be located within a
single multi-duct conduit or a single utility corridor structure. However, each sub-corridor is
intended to represent only one utility type.
The following plan view diagram shows the utility corridor polygons for different utilities,
corresponding to the cross-section diagram presented earlier.
In the case of a large utility corridor structure with walkway access, multiple utilities may be
located in the same sub-corridor, when viewed in a plan view, but at different heights. This
case is presently not considered in the data content standard, but will be taken up in the next
release of the standard, when UPC will incorporate the utilization of such utility corridor
structures in its accommodation strategy.

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Figure 5: Utility Corridor polygon showing 5 sub-corridors 01-05

Each sub-corridor is designated with a 6-digit number of the form NN-MMMM, where:
 NN, a 2-digit number, varying from 01-99, indicates the sub-corridor number
 MMMM, a 4-digit number, indicates the width of the corridor in centimeters

The Corridor Type, as defined in the Code List later, precedes the corridor sequence number.

For example, the information encoded in the above diagram is:

Corridor Type Corridor# Width

Clearance 01 70cm

Power line 400 V 02 200 cm

Water Distribution 03 150 cm

Irrigation 04 80 cm

Trees 05 100 cm

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6 UML Model
This section provides the UML model for the Utility Corridor.

6.1. UML Model for Utility Corridor

Figure 1: UML Model for Utility Corridor

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7 Data Dictionary

7.1. Data Dictionary for Utility Corridor

Table 2: Data Dictionary for Utility Corridor Feature

Attribute Name Description Data Type

Reservationtype Describes the type of Utility Corridor reserved by the feature. Codelist:Corrido
rReservationTyp
e

Reservationwidth Reserved width of the corridor in centimeters. Number

Approvalcode Code for approval records. String

Approvaldate Date of formal approval. Date

Corridor01type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor01width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor01type

Corridor02type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor02width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor02type

Corridor03type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor03width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor03type

Corridor04type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor04width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor04type

Corridor05type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor05width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor05type

Corridor06type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

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Corridor06width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor06type

Corridor07type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor07width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor07type

Corridor08type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor08width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor08type

Corridor09type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor09width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor09type

Corridor10type Indicates the type of sub-corridor from Codelist: CorridorType Codelist:

CorridorType

Corridor10width Indicates width in centimeters of sub-corridor defined by Number

Corridor10type

Integrity Rule: The sum of all CorridorNNwidth should be ≤ Reservationwidth

Table 3: Codelist for CorridorReservationType

Code Description Remarks
BSC Building Service Reservation All utilities except the ones under RSC and SSC
RSC Road Service Reservation Street Light, Drainage, and ITS
SSC Special Service Reservation Signal Corps, Oil

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Table 4: Codelist for CorridorType

CL Clearance
CO Crude Oil
CO2 MASDAR
D Drainage (Storm Water)
DC District Cooling
FO Fiber Optic by Signal Corps
FR Reserved for future use
GD Natural Gas Distribution
GT Natural Gas Transmission
I Irrigation
ITS Intelligent Traffic System
LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas
P Power (Electricity)
Power Line Type by Voltage Range
S Sewerage (Waste Water)
SL Street Light P004 Power 400V
SW Storm Water P011 Power 11 kV
SWM Storm Water Main P022 Power 22 kV
T Telephone P033 Power 33 kV
TO Treated Oil P132 Power 132 kV
TR Trees P220 Power 220 kV
VS Vacuum System P400 Power 400 kV
WD Water Distribution
WT Water Transmission

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Appendix: Utility Corridor Design Process

DMA

As part of the MSSI project common data models for various data sets, including Utility
Mapping, would be created. This process is expected to start in Dec 2009.

Al Ain Municipality
Utility corridors are designed first using cross-section drawings in MicroStation. This shows
the space across the road - from edge of building on one side of the road to the edge of
building on the other side of the road. The corridors are located on either side of the roads.
Earlier the corridor were of 20 meters width but in the last few years they are increased to 30-
32 meters to accommodate more types of utilities as requested by Utility companies.
However UPC wants to reduce them now. TPD had suggested using the space under the
roads to locate sewerage corridors but the Roads Department objected to this plan. Within the
utility corridor boundary area, further lines are marked to divide the space into sub-corridors
of specified widths for different types of utilities.

Abu Dhabi Municipality

Al Gharbia Municipality

ADWEA

UPC

UPC is preparing a Manual for Service Corridor; this project, starting on Dec 6, 2009 will be
completed in 13 months. This manual will complement the Street Manual, already
completed, but yet to be released, as well as this document on Data Content Standard for
Utility Corridor.

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