Unearthing Success: Managing Utility Conflicts on Ontario Line

This paper covers the importance of addressing utility conflicts early in the Ontario Line project. With over 1,500 identified utility conflicts and 186 unique relocation projects, the scale of the task is immense. The presentation will delve into the process of identifying utility conflicts on the project, offering insights that can benefit similar transit projects across North America. It will emphasize the Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) procedure and the meticulous steps involved in accurately pinpointing utility information and locations. This paper will detail how the information obtained from SUE is integrated with the project scope to identify and document utility conflicts. Furthermore, the presentation will highlight the collaborative efforts between the utility design team, third-party utility companies, and other project disciplines to proactively address utility relocations, including the crucial step of "space proofing" for utility relocations and ensuring the relocation of dry utilities before commencing other project works. The paper will pinpoint a specific conflict from the project and use it as an example for the overall processes and challenges. The Paper will then demonstrate the actions for addressing the conflict through each phase of the relocation process.