Damage Prevention Professionals Blog

I’ve got a question for any damage prevention professionals out there that could offer some insight.

Within the last year, I had trouble with a contractor who refused to spot our high profile water facilities along several major roadways (all were between 8″ and 24″). The boring contractor installing conduit for traffic signals, refused to pothole any facilities, claiming they used GPR to verify depths. My problem, was the accuracy of the equimpment and personnel using the GPR was in question. As one example, in less than a 20′ area, they scanned the GPR in 3 spots (photo attached). In which the depths were noted at 3’4″, 4′, and back to 3’5″. This utility was an eight inch cast iron pipe that comes in lengths of 20′ each and there are no elevation changes, so it is impossible for the line to fluctuate eight inches. The contractor wanted to give us three inches of clearance.

When I tried to stop the contractor from crossing us without potholing, they refused and I went to higher local authorities, but the local authorities governing the project allowed them to continue without potholing, stating that the GPR readings would be adequate. In this process, I found that there isn’t much enforcement of the laws regarding excavation procedures until the utility is actually damaged, where in this case, I guess the negligence of standard procedures would have been more obvious. And as a note, our utility did not get damaged, but we do not know how close they came to us when crossing our water main. Anyone dealt with a similar situation? If so, how’d you handle it?

Thank you,
Joseph Martin

We held company-wide meetings at Rhino and Infrastructure Resources, LLC to talk about how we could all make a difference during National Safe Digging Month (NSDM) and it has been fun to see what people have come up with.

We bought several hundred of the great 811 t-shirts from the CGA, as well as hundreds of the new CGA DVDs with three safe excavation videos and some 4′ x 8′ 811 banners. We also made some 811 coasters, and 1000 811 brochures (from the
call811.com website).

A highlight for me is that so many different people are coming up with ideas, and getting results.  Here are a few of the 811 promo activities that have been initiated so far are listed below:

1.  A local golf course will have their entire staff wear 811 t-shirts one day a week, and they will use 811 coaster in the bar
2. Everyone in both companies will be signing the CGA 811 Pledge
3. Owatonna Public Utilities will wear T-Shirts Casual Fridays in April
4. Owatonna Public Utilities will be doing the mail stuffers for April
5. McKinley Elementary will be showing the 811 Pirate Video & both the teacher involved
and the school Principal will be wearing 811 T-Shirts
6. Owatonna Safety Camp will talk about the importance of 811 in June
7. Pheasant Café will wear our 811 T-Shirts one day a week during NSDM
8. Banners will be put up for NSDM in Waseca and videos will be shown in Waseca schools
9. The Waseca 4 H Club will show the new CGA video
10. A Waseca State Farm Agent will wear one of our 811 T-Shirts during NSDM
11. A VP of a local Bank will wear one an 811 T-Shirt
12. The Owatonna Soccer Association  will wear  811 T-Shirts during soccer tournament for April
13.  CGA videos, 811 coasters and a flyer with the 811 pledge and NSDM month info will
be handed out at the Minnesota Telephone Show.
14. A Team member’s daughter Pam is taking the Pirate video to Holly Trinity in South St Paul.
15.  The staff at the local gym in Jordan will wear 811 shirts one day a week.
16.  An article idea has been submitted to the Jordan Paper editor, to cover local businesses support of NSDM & 811.
17. A team member’s two of her grandchildren set up to do a home school project where they will wear 811 t-shirts and pass 100 811 flyers in the neighborhood, wearing 811 shirts, with Mom’s supervision.
18.  We are sending eblasts to all associations that are not already involved with the CGA promoting the use of the NSDM button on their websites, etc. These were customized for each industry/stakeholder group.
19.  We have sent email blast promoting NSDM and 811 to 70,000 stakeholders.
20. We are asking all our reps to put the NSDM button on their websites.
21. The NSDM button will be one all our websites
www.RhinoMarkers.com
www.RhinoFenders.com
www.TrailMarking.com
www.811marking.com
www.DamagePreventionProfessional.com
www.CGAconference.com
www.ExcavationSafetyUniversity.com
www.ExcavationSafetyOnline.com

Tell people how you are promoting NSDM, so you can spark other stakeholders’
imagination.

22 Mar 2012 6:50 PM | I was surprised to read Mike Sullivan’s following announcement. It sure seems strange that the CRTC would not see the improvement in public safety approving 811 would provide. “It is with disappointment that the CCGA, its Regional Partners across Canada and its National Stakeholders The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association and the Canadian Gas Association, announce the CRTC decision to deny our application for shared use of the 811 dialling code. For a Telecom proceeding, our application generated an unprecedented level of positive response from coast to coast. With that in mind, we remain confident there is a strong public desire to simplify access to One Call systems in Canada enhancing the integrity of our buried critical infrastructure and above all, better protecting public, worker and Community Safety. To that end, the CCGA and its partners are reviewing the CRTC’s decision and considering next steps.”

Click the link below to see the CRTC’s decision:

English

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-167.htm

Francais:

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/fra/archive/2012/2012-167.htm

Good afternoon Scott,

We are a Guardrail Company in Eastern Washington State, and I am the current President of the Inland Empire Utility Coordination Council. Recently I share Wayne Jensen’s article in the Winter 2012 edition of your magazine with the president of our company. He found the article to be right on target with his thoughts on how important it is to identify underground facilities during the planning and engineering phases of highway projects.

The purpose of my corresponding with you today is to request permission to use this article in our correspondence with project owners and Prime contractors. We currently insert the attached letter whenever we enter into a contract, and would like to also include a copy of the article with this letter.

Please let me know your thoughts and contact us if you have any questions. Thank you for the work you and the CGA do to help us all work safely.

Thank you.
Tom Tantriella
Contract Administrator

This is the first post to the new Damage Prevention Professional Blog!