The first 3D maps of the UK underworld are to be created in a new £2.2m project which will save the UK millions of pounds by reducing the amount we dig up our roads.

There are enough pipes and cables buried under our streets to stretch to the moon and back ten times, but we don’t know where many of them are. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Nottingham will help to locate them, by finding a way to integrate existing digital and paper-based records and link these with data from satellite and ground-based positioning systems.

They aim to bring all this information together in a format that’s easy to understand for contractors, utility companies and planners – so it can be displayed visually on a PC in the office or handheld unit in the street.

Four million holes are dug each year in the nation’s road – one every seven seconds – to repair pipes and cables or install new ones, at an estimated cost of £1bn per annum. With indirect costs, such as congestion, this rises to an estimated £5bn p.a. – over £80 for every inhabitant of the UK.

By creating more accurate information, the project will help reduce the numbers of holes dug, ensure they are dug in the right place and that unexpected pipes and cables aren’t damaged in the process. Reducing roadworks by just 0.1% would save the UK economy millions of pounds a year.

Announcing £900,000 funding for the research from the DTI’s Technology Programme, Minister for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury, heralded the project as ‘world beating’ and said it would help ‘develop a competitive advantage for British business’.