The innovative helpers of digitalization for planning and construction

Mario Blanke in front of a roll-up advertising the "LAO Leitungsauskunft" platform.

Mario Blanke, founder of LAO Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, comes from the industry and therefore knows the pitfalls of line information. Born in the Rhineland, he studied surveying after training as a surveying technician.

In his professional career, he has supervised a number of construction projects for which he had to obtain pipeline information himself. During his employment at RWE and Mainova, he then provided pipeline information to construction companies and planning offices himself. This gave him a complete overview of the "pipeline information" process.

Germany is to become a strong digital country, according to the federal government's coalition agreement. This includes, above all, the expansion of broadband for fast internet. But what does it look like in practice? Similar to house construction, it is necessary to check where which cables and pipes run before the excavator can move in. So-called line information (as-built plans of lines running in the ground) are legally required information requests. These ensure that, for example, electricity and telecommunications cables are not accidentally damaged during excavation work. Network operators, such as municipal utilities, are obliged to provide this information. The cable information should actually be completed quickly. Actually! In the absence of a central register of where which lines run or who these line network operators are, researching and writing to the network operators is a mammoth and annoying task. In conurbations such as Frankfurt, there are lines from more than 50 different network operators. As a result, there are 100,000 excavation claims every year, causing around 500 million euros in damage.

Based on his experience and the existing serious inefficiencies in this work process, he came up with the idea of developing a service for this in 2017. Today, he and his team at Gründercampus Ostpol continue to develop this idea and act as an intermediary between the person making the inquiry (e.g. an employee of a construction company) and the network operators.

With just one click, the customer can start their line information on the "LAO Leitungsauskunft" platform and request information from all selected network operators at the same time. The path to this point was not always easy, a lot of data had to be collected and digitally processed, cooperation partners had to be acquired and, after the product was successfully launched on the market, new customers had to be acquired through trade fair appearances and many personal discussions. Mario Blanke is proud that his start-up LAO Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH has made it possible for the first time to coordinate inquiries via smartphone or PC.

This allows construction companies to reduce the risk of damaging cables, insurance cover is maintained and planning and construction work are not surprised by disruptive cables.

The digitalization of work processes saves time and increases safety on the construction site. The product from Offenbach is currently available for Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, but in future it will cover all inquiries throughout Germany.