Woolpert Accelerates Utility Mapping and Reduces Field Investigation Time by 50% with 4M

Background

Woolpert is a premier architecture, engineering, and geospatial firm headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. They were founded in 1911, and have grown to more than 2,500 employees in 60+ offices across five continents. They’re also a Top 50 ENR Global Design firm, and a fast-growing company across many different facets of the AG spectrum. Woolpert is currently focused on unlocking even more efficient and practical workflows for their clientele with 4M’s instant, reliable utility data you can trust and verify—all in one platform

Key Results

1. Up to 50% Reduction in Field Investigation Time for Level B SUE Efforts. Using 4M’s validated utility data, Woolpert cut field investigation time by up to 50% on many projects. What historically required 100 hours of Level B SUE effort can now be scoped at 50 hours, reducing labor costs and enabling Woolpert to reallocate Teams across projects more effectively.
2. 60% Reduction in CAD Digitization Time per Mile, with 10-15% Better Data Quality. Thanks to 4M’s reliable GIS-ready data, Woolpert streamlines its QA/QC processes by shifting CAD teams from data creation to data verification, allowing for quicker, more confident delivery of conflict matrices to design teams.
3. Improved Risk Mitigation and Field Safety. By detecting utility conflicts and safety risks early with 4M’s data, Woolpert avoids costly redesigns, minimizes unnecessary excavation, and cuts time spent in busy roadway corridors. 

Straight from the Source  

Hear what Jason Kail, Technology & Operations Coordinator at Woolpert, had to say about his team’s experience with 4M’s Utility AI Mapping platform. 

Challenge: Fragmented Data, Delayed Insight, Reactive Field Planning

Historically, the early stages of SUE involved a highly manual and time-consuming process of gathering utility records across multiple sources: municipalities, utility owners, as-builts, and legacy plans. It wasn’t unusual to spend a full week or more uncovering utility records in various states of completeness.. The utility data they gathered from conventional methods was often inconsistent, outdated, or incomplete, which delayed their research efforts.

“That's typically how it has been done in the past,” Kail says. “You combine all the records research from all these different stakeholders out there for utilities, and then somebody has to digitize them or compile them. Even the GIS maps we've seen in the past have really struggled with spatial accuracy.”

They were left having to manually stitch all of this data together into a usable digital format, taking up technical staff members’ valuable time before submitting a pursuit or a proposal. It was costly, slow, and inefficient, but that has been the status quo for the industry. That initial uncertainty caused delays that rippled throughout the project lifecycle, costing both Woolpert and its customers time and money. 

Solution: Smarter Scheduling, Higher Confidence, and Improved Safety with 4M Utility Data

4M’s validated utility data adds tremendous value for the Woolpert Team. They strategically integrated it into their utility mapping workflows to improve their efficiency and data quality, and they are already seeing significant results. 

With 4M, Woolpert has been able to cut field investigation time by up to 50% on many projects. A project that previously would have required 100 hours of Level B SUE effort now can take just 50 hours with 4M by allowing the investigations to be focused where the utility locations are needed most. Not only is Woolpert saving on labor costs, but they’re also able to re-allocate teams across other projects more effectively. And about 50% of their validated-data projects have had scope or crew-size adjustments, meaning they can schedule their people more efficiently and reduce field labor burden. 

Woolpert uses 4M in both the project planning and estimating stages of their projects. “It helps support our estimating efforts by providing the customer an estimate with a higher confidence on the level of effort needed to address utility exploration and design,” Kail says. 

4M also helps them deliver early insights to their DOT clients, helping them reroute designs before field conflicts arise. In the high-congestion corridors where they work, this foresight is critical, ensuring that projects stay on track and crews stay safe. 

“Using 4M’s Utility AI Mapping Platform, we gain rapid access to a nationwide subsurface utility database that synthesizes hundreds of public and proprietary data sources into a GIS-ready utility overview,” Kail notes. “For our DOT clients tackling corridor projects or complex intersections, this means we can get a full utility corridor sketch, in some locations within Foundation Data States, in real-time.”

“For example, on a recent roadway improvement engineering project in Ohio, we used 4M to identify clusters of utility conflicts long before field crews were mobilized.” This allowed Woolpert’s engineers to envision the full utility picture, which is helpful in setting preliminary budgets and potential relocation costs.

Additionally, 4M’s Utility AI Mapping allowed Woolpert to:

• Plan and pre-target their EM (electromagnetic) and GPR sweeps more effectively
• Estimate potential potholing locations where utility crossings were most probable
• Cut back unnecessary test holes, which helps create savings and project timelines in field labor alone

In fact, Woolpert has seen a 60% reduction in CAD digitalization time per mile. On a typical 1-mile project with five major utilities, digitalization used to take five full days. With 4M, they’ve seen that time reduced to just two days. Their CAD team was empowered to switch from spending time on data creation to data verification, meaning they can deliver faster, more confident conflict matrices to design teams. 

"Verifying data is a lot easier than generating the data,” Kail says. “With 4M, our CAD technicians can focus on QA/QC instead of data creation, and anytime you start with QA/QC, you're already ahead of the game."

More importantly, by integrating 4M’s records into their Trimble Business Center, CAD, MicroStation, and GIS workflows, Woolpert can deliver an initial conflict matrix to the roadway design team weeks ahead of nominal schedules. This allows their engineers to reroute any planned utility relocation or drainage improvements around critical utility infrastructure in the area without requiring a change order later.

4M helps Woolpert mitigate risk and operate with a higher level of safety by:

• Focusing utility designation team efforts in critical areas, limiting or eliminating their time spent in busy roadway corridors
• Allowing engineers to determine which SUE Quality Level B areas field crews should focus on
• Minimizing unnecessary excavation by specifying the Level A locations where potential utility conflicts may occur   

“Every piece of information helps mitigate risk,” Kail states. “The worst thing on a construction site is a trackhoe uncovering a pipe nobody knew about—that stops everything.”

Looking Forward 

Adopting 4M Analytics in Woolpert’s project workflows isn’t just a tech upgrade—it’s a commitment to smarter, safer, and more cost-effective engineering. And with Woolpert soon expanding use of 4M into Foundation Data states (starting with Virginia and Ohio), the value of early utility visibility will grow exponentially. Foundation-level projects offer instant access to base-level utility data, helping Woolpert scope projects more confidently from day one.

“4M doesn’t replace our field verification,” Kail says. “But it supercharges our ability to plan and prioritize intelligently, making our SUE efforts more strategic, not just reactive.” 

Woolpert’s collaboration with 4M has proven to be a strategic shift toward proactive, data-driven engineering. By improving operational efficiency, enhancing quality, and increasing scheduling efficiency, Woolpert continues to raise the bar in utility mapping and project delivery.