Roads and utility networks (VRD): the role of surveying in roads and networks

What VRD covers

VRD stands for “voirie et réseaux divers” (roads and utility networks). The term refers to all the works that make land usable: it can be accessed, water and energy are brought to it, and water is drained away from it. In a subdivision, a housing group, a business park or a public facility, the VRD work package generally includes:

• roads: carriageways, pavements, kerbs, car parks, junctions, with their subgrade and surface layers;
• sewerage: wastewater network, stormwater network (combined or separate depending on the operator), manholes, gullies, retention structures;
• drinking water: pipes, valves, service connections, fire hydrants;
• electricity: medium- and low-voltage networks, transformer substations;
• street lighting and telecommunications (ducts, draw pits).

Law No. 25-90 does not speak of a “VRD design office”: it entrusts the studies for roads, sewerage, water and electricity to specialist engineers (Articles 15 and 16), and the topographic plan to the surveyor (Article 14). This guide deals with that surveying component, from the first survey to the as-built plan. The legal framework for subdivisions is presented in the guide Subdivision.

The stages of a VRD project, from the surveyor's point of view

1. Initial topographic survey: relief (spot heights, contour lines), boundaries and boundary markers, buildings, fences, trees, ditches, existing roads with their kerbs and levels, visible network features (manholes, valve boxes, poles).
2. Detection and survey of existing networks: position, depth and type of the pipes and cables that cross or run alongside the site (see the next section).
3. Preliminary design: the VRD design office lays out the roads and networks on the topographic plan; the surveyor provides the profiles and the terrain model used to compare options.
4. Detailed design: final plans, longitudinal and cross profiles, staking-out books, detailed earthwork volumes.
5. Setting-out: transferring the centre lines, kerbs, manholes and service connections to the ground, with levelling benchmarks.
6. Monitoring: checking trench bottoms, invert levels, layer thicknesses and finished levels as the work proceeds.
7. As-built survey: survey of the works actually built and georeferenced as-built plan (plan de récolement).

These stages overlap: a network discovered during excavation means a profile has to be reworked. That is why the same coordinate and level reference system must be used from the first survey to the last check.

Detecting and surveying existing networks

On greenfield land, there are few networks. In town, or along a road, it is the opposite: water pipes, sewers, electricity and telecom cables cross the site, often without a reliable plan. The methods are combined:

• Collecting plans from the network operators and the municipality. Useful for knowing what to look for, but often old, schematic or not georeferenced.
• Surveying visible features: opening manholes, measuring invert levels and diameters, locating valve boxes, cabinets and poles.
• Electromagnetic detection: it locates metal cables and pipes, or those into which a signal can be injected.
• Ground-penetrating radar: it picks up buried objects of any kind, but its range depends on the soil; moisture and clay reduce it.
• Trial pits: only a local excavation gives the position, depth and type of a network with certainty.

No non-destructive method guarantees completeness. A PVC pipe without a tracer wire, an abandoned cable or a very deep network can escape detection. The plan of existing networks must therefore state, for each section, how it was obtained (plan, detection, trial pit): this information is as important as the position itself.

The surveying deliverables to require

• Topographic plan with levels at a suitable scale (1:200 to 1:1000 depending on the project), in Lambert coordinates and tied levels, showing all surveyed features.
• Longitudinal profiles of the roads and networks: natural ground, design line, gradients, invert levels, manholes.
• Cross profiles: widths, crossfalls, cut and fill slopes, position of the networks within the site.
• Digital terrain model (DTM): a surface calculated from the surveyed points, the basis for calculating gradients, catchment areas and volumes.
• Earthwork volumes: cut and fill volumes by section, the basis for measuring the earthworks.
• Setting-out plans and staking-out books.
• Georeferenced as-built plans, by network, with invert levels, depths and manhole levels.

For a subdivision, the general building regulations (Joint Order No. 337-20) provide that the urban design plan and the infrastructure plans, at a scale of 1:500 or 1:1000, are drawn up on the basis of the topographic plan. Before the “ne varietur” documents are handed over, the file must include the longitudinal profiles of the carriageways, sewers and water pipes, and the typical cross profiles of the roads, with the widths, gradients and position of the underground pipes.

Ask for the digital files (CAD and points) as well as the prints: a paper plan does not allow you to recalculate a volume or overlay a network. The Lambert Morocco system is presented in the guide Cadastral plan, title plan, topographic plan; our Lambert converter helps with quick checks.

Expected accuracy and checks

Accuracy cannot be decreed after the event: it is defined in the technical specifications of the contract, according to the use of the plan. A gravity sewerage network is more demanding in terms of levels than a pressurised water pipe, whose gradient matters little. Have the expected horizontal and vertical tolerances, the scale and the density of points specified in writing.

The checks to ask for are simple:

• horizontal tie-in to the points of the geodetic network, in Lambert, not to an arbitrary local reference;
• vertical tie-in to a known levelling benchmark, stating which one; a project “in relative levels” does not connect properly to the public networks;
• site reference points physically marked, protected and checked before each phase;
• independent checks: points surveyed twice, closed traverses, comparison with known existing structures;
• traceability: a report stating the equipment, the tie-in points and the discrepancies observed.

VRD and subdivisions after Law No. 34-21

In a subdivision, the surveying quality of the VRD has legal consequences. Law No. 34-21 (Official Bulletin No. 7533 of 10 August 2026), which amends Law No. 25-90, gives three examples, detailed in the guide Subdivision:

• The site coordinator (Article 17) monitors the execution of the works in accordance with the authorised documents; the law mentions the surveying engineer (ingénieur topographe) among the possible profiles. The coordinator signs the certificate of compliance attached to the declaration of completion (Article 22).
• Provisional acceptance takes place within 30 days of that declaration (Article 23). The committee examines in particular the site logbook; the surveying engineer is among the persons invited (Article 24).
• Transfer to the public domain: the provisional acceptance report automatically transfers to the municipality the roads, the water, electricity and sewerage networks and the planted open spaces (Article 24). What the municipality receives must therefore be described exactly.

The as-built plan is the document that makes the link: it proves that the roads and networks are in the authorised place and at the authorised levels, and serves as the basis for the topographic plan drawn up after boundary marking that allows the subdivision to be entered on the land title and the titles of the lots to be created (Article 32).

Do not confuse this as-built plan (plan de récolement, the survey of the works carried out) with the inspection committee (commission de récolement) provided for by the general building regulations for a building's occupancy permit (permis d'habiter): they are two different things.

Network operators and service connections

Depending on the town, public networks are operated by the ONEE, by autonomous utilities (régies autonomes) or by regional multi-service companies (sociétés régionales multiservices) created by Law No. 83-21 (2023) for the distribution of water and electricity and for liquid sanitation, which are gradually taking over these tasks. Telecommunications are the responsibility of the operators.

The general building regulations involve the network operators in the examination of large projects, including subdivisions. The model subdivision authorisation annexed to the regulations prohibits connecting the subdivision to off-site networks without the authorisation of the departments responsible for operating them. Connection procedures, documents and contributions are specific to each operator: contact the one serving your municipality from the preliminary design stage.

For the surveyor, this means two things: accurately surveying the existing connection points (invert level of the sewer, position of the pipe), which are among the documents in the subdivision file, and supplying as-built plans in the format and coordinate system that the operator accepts.

Common mistakes

• Networks not surveyed: a cable or pipe discovered during excavation stops the site and forces a change of route.
• Levels not tied in: a project based on a local benchmark does not connect to the public sewer; the reverse gradient appears with the first storm.
• A survey that is too old: since the survey, a neighbour has backfilled, a track has been widened, a ditch has been piped. Have the survey updated before construction.
• Earthwork volumes on a DTM that is too sparse: few points on uneven terrain, and the earthwork volume is wrong.
• No as-built survey, or one done from memory: without a plan of the works actually built, acceptance becomes complicated, the municipality inherits a network it cannot locate, and every future intervention starts with a search.
• Forgotten boundaries: a road or a manhole set out on the neighbouring land. Check the boundary markers before setting out.

Ellipsoide has carried out surveying work accompanying the road works in Fez (2007) and profiles for the Sebou River Basin Agency (2005); see our references and our topographic expert services.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Law No. 34-21 amending and supplementing Law No. 25-90 on subdivisions, housing groups and plot divisions, promulgated by Dahir No. 1-26-61 of 28 July 2026 (Official Bulletin No. 7533 of 10 August 2026, Arabic edition) — General Secretariat of the Government (Official Bulletin)
• Law No. 25-90 on subdivisions, housing groups and plot divisions (original 1992 text, before Law No. 34-21) — Ministry of Justice (Adala)
• Decree No. 2-18-577 of 12 June 2019 approving the general building regulations and Joint Order No. 337-20 setting the required documents (Official Bulletin No. 6874 of 16 April 2020) — Official Bulletin (copy from the Settat urban planning agency)
• Decree No. 2-13-18 of 14 July 2014 on land registration formalities — ANCFCC
• Law No. 12-90 on urban planning (consolidated version) — General Secretariat of the Government
• Law No. 83-21 on regional multi-service companies: adoption by the House of Representatives (13 June 2023) (article in French) — Médias24

This guide provides general information, up to date as of the date shown. It does not replace the official texts or a professional review of your file. Ask us about your situation.