LMG Streamlines Field Locates with ArcGIS

Customer Spotlight Story

Lancaster Municipal Gas (LMG) is a city-owned natural gas utility serving about 16,300 customers in and around Lancaster, Ohio. About 10 percent of its customers are outside the city limits. Natural gas was discovered here in 1887. LMG was founded a year later, in 1888. Today, its distribution system delivers approximately two billion cubic feet of natural gas annually through 256 miles of natural gas mains.

Although LMG is no longer a natural gas producer, it has access to multiple transmission pipelines. It has four interconnects with TC Energy Transmission, and another interconnect with Texas Eastern Transmission.

Utility construction.

The City of Lancaster has leveraged GIS extensively. Using ArcGIS and GPS receivers, it created a county-wide property database that mapped building locations, documented conditions with photos, and linked county parcel information.

CHALLENGE

The utility maintains gas mains and service lines and uses GIS to support locating, engineering, maintenance, operations, and customer service. However, LMG’s locators needed two devices for each locate job. They first used the pipe locator to find and mark the gas line. They then used a separate high-accuracy GPS unit to record the location for mapping. The process worked, but because locating and GPS mapping were separate, crews spent more time, handled more equipment, and took extra steps. In addition, some information also had to be entered later.

VISION

Leadership knew a better process must be possible. LMG wanted to make it easier for the locator to save field locate information directly into ArcGIS by finding the gas line and recording its GPS position using one high-accuracy device during the same job. The system should then label the point as a main line or service line when it has enough information to decide, assign a locate quality score, and flag anything that needs a closer look. This would remove the need to finish the locate and then use a separate GPS unit.

The utility envisioned a process that would optimize locate activity by enabling the locator to do both tasks with the same device and load results directly into ArcGIS.

SOLUTION

LMG began the work in April 2026 and implemented a new, innovative process that went live in May 2026. LMG leveraged Subsite, a member of the Esri Partner Network, utilizing UtiliGuard 2 RTK, an underground utility locator with RTK/GNSS (Real-Time Kinematic/Global Navigation Satellite System) capability that captures utility-location information with centimeter-level positional accuracy. It also utilizes Subsite UtiliView, an app that captures and transfers the locate data into the ArcGIS environment. GNSS is a broader global term for GPS.

Kurtis Waite, General Manager, LMG, developed the process with help from Scott Snider, the City’s GIS Manager, and Benjamin Crawford, Gas GIS Mapping Technician. Gavin Bee, a senior engineering student at Ohio University and LMG summer intern, provided valuable assistance as the process was put into service.

Field locate data is captured via Subsite’s UtiliView Fields Template and sent to LMG’s Subsite V2 layer in ArcGIS Online. A scheduled process then creates or updates the matching record in the Gas GPS Points layer while keeping the original Subsite record. It uses the point’s bearing and distance from the nearest mapped main, the connected trace, branch patterns, and nearby classified GPS points to determine whether the record should be a Main Line Point or Service Line Point. If the evidence is unclear, the point remains unclassified and is flagged for review.

A field observation received from Subsite UtiliView is displayed in LMG’s ArcGIS Online Gas Field Map with its photo attachment.

Gas or blank observations are handled as gas points, while other utility observations receive a non-gas point type. Clear gas results are classified as Point Type: Main Line with Point Category: Main Line Point, or Point Type: Service Line with Point Category: Service Line Point. For newly created Gas GPS Points, the system also copies any available attachments.

LMG ‘s Gas Field Map leverages ArcGIS.

RESULTS

The Gas Field Map shows the gas network and the new GPS Points in one place. Clicking a point opens a popup with the locate details, GPS information, final category, review status, date, attachments, and locate quality score.

The locate quality score is a simple 0-to-100 summary of how the locate was performed, the signal settings, the GPS status and accuracy, whether the reading makes sense, and whether the record needs review. Ratings are excellent (90-100), good (75-89), fair (60-74), or poor (below 60).

The tracer-wire alert is also in service. If tracer wire is documented as available but the record shows an Inductive locate method instead of a direct conductive connection to the wire, the system emails supervision and management.

The solution runs in ArcGIS Online and uses ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Field Maps, ArcGIS Experience Builder, and ArcGIS Survey123. Subsite UtiliView sends observations from the UtiliGuard 2 RTK into ArcGIS Online.

Staff see and review the finished records on Lancaster Municipal Gas’s Gas Field Map.

BENEFITS

The biggest immediate benefit is that crews can locate and map the point in one trip without switching equipment. Field time has been cut by more than half!

“We already had sub-centimeter GNSS/GPS equipment. The real improvement was being able to record the location during the locate, send it into ArcGIS without changing equipment, and let the scheduled process create the finished map point. The system also gives supervision and management better oversight without slowing down our crews.” – Kurtis Waite, General Manager, LMG

The solution reduces equipment changes, gets the locator’s notes and decisions into the map sooner, and gives staff a consistent way to review locate quality. Two UtiliGuard 2 RTK units are now in service: one is used by the locator and the other by Gavin. Supervision and management can focus on flagged records without interrupting normal fieldwork.

Lancaster Municipal Gas simplifies gas asset locates leveraging ArcGIS.

The Gas Field Map also brings the gas network and new GPS points together in one place, giving staff access to locate details, GPS information, final category, review status, date, attachments, and locate quality score.

NEXT STEPS

Looking ahead, the utility believes the two units will provide more records to help improve the main line and service line rules, the locate quality score, and supervisor alerts. LMG has also started testing augmented reality with Z-Focus and the data collected through this process. A wider rollout will depend on the test results and could begin as early as the first quarter of 2027.

SUMMARY

Challenge: LMG used separate devices to locate gas lines and capture GPS positions, adding time and extra field steps.

Solution: LMG integrated Subsite UtiliGuard 2 RTK and UtiliView with ArcGIS to capture locate and GPS data in one workflow and send it directly into its GIS.

Results: Locate records now include mapped points, quality scores, review status, attachments, and automated alerts for staff review.

Benefits: Crews can locate and map assets in one trip without switching equipment, cutting field time by more than half.

Esri Infrastructure

Esri Infrastructure focuses on the planning, delivery, and operation of assets, networks, projects, and IT systems within organizations to support a modern, sustainable, and resilient future. By leveraging GIS, organizations can model and connect the built, social, and natural worlds. This enables advanced visualizations and analytics across the entire infrastructure lifecycle, helping to foster stronger relationships and more efficient use of resources.