Session Voices: Unearthing the Future of Underground Utility Mapping in NYC

In New York City, centuries of development have produced a dense, layered subsurface, historically recorded using analog methods. The problem is that those methods don’t mesh well with today’s digital data standards as the city moves toward broader digitization efforts. Methods like consolidating mapping under a single digital framework are highlighting the limitations of legacy underground utility records. 

Challenges like these will be explored in the Geo Week 2026 session “Unearthing the Future: Modernizing Underground Utility Surveying and Mapping in NYC.” Moderated by Tom Cerchiara, LS, of Pix4D, the panel brings together Jason Graf, LS, of SAM NY; Tim Massi, LS, of National Grid; and James Melachrinos of Con Edison. These presenters represent consulting, utility ownership, and geospatial technology perspectives grounded in real work experiences in New York City.

For Cerchiara, the session reflects a moment when long-discussed technologies are becoming more practical to deploy.

“I think what’s really exciting is to see a lot of these technologies that we have been talking about for years—digital twins, scalable 3D scanning, augmented reality—becoming a reality in civil infrastructure,” he said. “The technology has matured, and workflows are being developed that allow companies like Con Edison and National Grid to actually implement them at an enterprise scale.”

For attendees, some of the value of this session lies in understanding how those workflows are actually coming together. Panelists will discuss how utilities and consultants are approaching modernization incrementally, how legacy records are being evaluated and integrated into GIS and 3D environments, and where organizational or data-management challenges tend to emerge. The conversation is expected to provide practical insights that may apply well beyond New York City, particularly for professionals working in dense or legacy-heavy environments.

From the utility perspective, Melachrinos emphasizes that modernization is as much about process as technology.

“For me, it’s exciting because we at the company are just starting on our journey with this technology,” he said. “It is a big shift in how we capture our underground utilities, and it is a groundbreaking technology, even if it doesn’t physically break the ground.”

Rather than presenting a single solution or roadmap, the session will focus on lessons learned, tradeoffs, and early outcomes that offer attendees a clearer sense of what modernization looks like in practice, what questions to ask internally, and where expectations should be calibrated.

“Unearthing the Future: Modernizing Underground Utility Surveying and Mapping in NYC” will take place February 17 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. MT in the Bluebird Ballroom 1A at Geo Week 2026. See you there!