The AGS Data Format committee wishes to announce the publication of Revision 1 to the third edition of the AGS Data transfer format.

The AGS Data Format subcommittee has monitored the use of the format within the industry since the launch of AGS 3 in 1999. The committee considers that it is now appropriate to issue AGS 3.1 to include the developments which have occurred over the last few years. In accordance with section 9 of the AGS 3 publication the majority of this document includes format additions requested by the industry.

There are no major changes from AGS 3 and therefore the committee have decided to call this Revision 1 of the AGS 3 format (AGS 3.1) rather than AGS 4. The changes in this revision are new fields, groups and pick list items all sitting within the AGS 3 framework.

AGS 3.1 is compliant with the rules in AGS 3 and therefore the ? remains in all new headings and groups even though these are now in common use.

This revision brings together AGS 3, the “The AGS-M Format – for the electronic transfer of monitoring data ” published by AGS and CIRIA in 2002 and other groups and headings, which have been suggested on the AGS website and used by the industry.

A complete list of all additions, revisions and their history is available on the AGS web pages (http://www.ags.org.uk) The AGS data format website has been updated to display all the additions in this document together will the appropriate guidance notes. The website also allows the visitor to view the field version history and an appropriate discussion threads that have contributed to the changes

It is expected that all registered users will be able to use these additional headings for projects starting after March 2005 but this is solely up to the relevant project members to agree.