Electronic manifest of underground facility locate marks

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed on at least one processing unit, perform a method of generating an electronic manifest of a locate operation performed by a locate technician, the method comprising:

• A) electronically receiving a digital image of a geographic area comprising a dig area;
• B) receiving user input regarding a geographic location of at least one physical locate mark applied by the locate technician during the locate operation, the locate operation comprising identifying, using the at least one physical locate mark, a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within the dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area is planned to be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities;
• C) rendering a screen display of a marked-up digital image comprising at least a portion of the received digital image and at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark, wherein the at least one digital representation is positioned with respect to the at least a portion of the received digital image based at least in part on the user input received in B);
• D) converting the at least one digital representation to GPS coordinates;
• and
• E) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to generate the electronic manifest of the locate operation, wherein the information includes:
• a timestamp indicative of when the locate operation occurred;
• and
• at least one of i) the marked-up digital image and ii) the GPS coordinates.

An apparatus for facilitating generation of an electronic manifest of a locate operation performed by a locate technician, the apparatus comprising:

• a communication interface;
• a display device;
• a user input device;
• a memory to store processor-executable instructions;
• and
• a processing unit coupled to the communication interface, the display device, the user input device, and the memory, wherein upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processing unit, the processing unit:
• controls the communication interface to electronically receive a digital image of a geographic area including a dig area;
• controls the display device to display at least a portion of the received digital image;
• acquires user input from the user input device, the user input relating to a geographic location of at least one physical locate mark applied by the locate technician during the locate operation, the locate operation comprising identifying, using the at least one physical locate mark, a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility within the dig area, wherein at least a portion of the dig area is planned to be excavated or disturbed during excavation activities;
• generates a marked-up digital image including at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark based at least in part on the user input;
• converts the at least one digital representation to GPS coordinates;
• and
• further controls the communication interface and/or the memory to electronically transmit and/or electronically store information relating to the marked-up digital image so as to generate the electronic manifest of the locate operation, wherein the information includes:
• a timestamp indicative of when the locate operation occurred;
• and
• at least one of i) the marked-up digital image and ii) the GPS coordinates.