Andy Kaiyala - The future digital age of subsurface utilities!

In 2023, technology has become a vital part in every aspect of our lives. Industries across the globe have managed to find the perfect relationship between technological advancement’s ad productivity. However, in the infrastructure industry today, the adoption of technology is being impeded for various reasons. Plain and simple, the industry has not gone digital, and we ask ourselves why are we still collecting and verifying utility data the same was for the last few decades?

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Andy Kaiyala, an expert in civil construction for the last 25 years has been wondering the same question, and sits down with our very own David Horesh on this episode of the Utility strategy podcast to discuss the challenges, and possible solutions to integrate technology into the industry.

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Andy started out in the field as a project engineer during pre-construction. He spent time in the Middle East, Australia, and the United States working on some of the biggest infrastructure projects. Today he works with WSB, and dedicates the majority of his time to finding the greatest ways to incorporate technology into the project lifecycle from start to finish.

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Key Takeaways

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Technology is increasing - Productivity is not corresponding

One thing I landed was the use of technology, increased. Productivity did not. We're not as productive as we once were, and theres a few reasons why.

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Work with better technology for the sake of the taxpayer

The whole idea was to develop what I'm referring to as digital construction management and how are we gonna take all of this technology innovation and put it to work and build better and be better stewards of public tax dollars and actually be more productive through the application of technology.

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The classic passing of the buck

The industry as a whole has gotten used to the idea that they're trying to shift risk from one bucket to the other. Whether that's on the contractor, the owner, or the third party utility. So we’re trying to figure out who’s fault is it. Then we try to draft agreements that make sure we are not the one that's at fault. Well, that hasn't worked and it's not going to work.

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