tor could easily miss notifying a facility operator. Today, excavators have the option to contact 811 by phone, online o
BEFORE YOU DIG
Why Do People Fail to
Call 811? b y
T
he process of underground damage prevention constantly changes and evolves. In years past, excavators were responsible for contacting individual utility companies to get jobsites marked. This process was time-consuming and difficult. Because there was no central clearinghouse for information (811 notification center), an excavator could easily miss notifying a facility operator. Today, excavators have the option to contact 811 by phone, online or through a mobile device.
L a r e i n a
Ta i n g
Calling 811 is easy, affordable, and the law. Intense educational efforts have raised public awareness. Process improvements make filing a locate request easier than ever. Despite this, the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) reports that an accident occurs every six minutes because an excavator failed to request a locate. Jim Barron, Executive Director of the Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention
Authority (MDUFDPA), is a retired excavator who has supported damage prevention for 40 years. The “Authority”, as Mr. Barron refers to the MDUFDPA, is the enforcement arm specified in the Maryland State Damage Prevention Statute. The Maryland law has created a complaintdriven, administrative process for the adjudication of violations. Among his duties, Mr. 2016
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BEFORE YOU DIG
Barron conducts investigations of stakeholdersubmitted complaints to the Authority. A complainant is required to submit a detailed written description of the alleged violation. Mr. Barron then gathers information from all parties as the Authority processes a “Notice of Probable Violation” or NPV. Mr. Barron described a recent case in which an experienced second-generation excavator employed by an 80+-year-old firm hit a gas main three times within the span of three days: The excavator and his crew were excavating in an old, demolished housing development.
The excavator instead continued to dig without obtaining the ticket. Two days later, he again struck the gas main. The gas company arrived to repair the main and found that the contractor had failed to obtain a Miss Utility ticket. The excavator claimed he was working under a ticket that had been obtained by the developer who hired him. The gas company explained that Maryland law requires excavators to obtain their own locate ticket (excavators cannot work under someone else’s ticket). The excavator again agreed to obtain his own locate request but continued to work without doing so. The excavator hit the gas main a third time two hours later.
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failed to stop work and obtain facility locates after the first hit. The Authority sent the excavator an NPV with recommended fines of $2,000 for the first violation, $4,000 for every subsequent violation, and mandatory damage prevention training. In Maryland, upon receipt of an NPV, the excavator can settle the matter by paying the fine and taking training, if required, or the excavator can request a formal hearing (part of the right of due process under the Maryland law). In this case, the excavator requested a formal hearing before the Authority. After conducting the hearing, during which the contractor admitted that he should have filed a ticket himself, the Authority recommended enforcement of the full penalty, which included training.
Rather than appealing the Authority’s decision to Maryland Circuit Court, the contractor’s attorney asked the Authority to reconsider the total amount of the fine. The Authority lowered the cumulative fines from the initial $10,000 to $6,000 and requested that the contractor schedule the training for his team himself.
Mr. Barron identified three key points as to why an excavator might fail to call 811 prior to digging: • Not knowing or understanding the law. This is a relevant factor when excavation crews do not speak English as their primary language. Language barriers present unique and difficult challenges. • Poor planning may pressure an excavator to skip locates to meet impending deadlines. • The belief that nothing is belowground in the work area. • A common misconception that excavators can work under someone else’s ticket and consequently don’t need a ticket of their own.
While the gas facilities buried beneath the development were abandoned, a live eight-inch gas main serving other customers ran through the area. The excavator began to dig without a Miss Utility locate ticket and hit the main. The gas company came out to repair the main and insisted that the contractor file a locate ticket before continuing work. 12
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This time, the gas company demanded that the excavator discontinue all work until a locate ticket was filed. The excavator obtained a locate request after the third hit. The gas company subsequently filed a complaint with the Authority. An investigation by the Authority found the excavator violated the Maryland Statute. Of great concern was the fact that the excavator
Massoud Tahamtani, Director of the Division of Utility and Railroad Safety for the Virginia State Corporation Commission and a member of the CGA Board of Directors, has served as a regulator of the damage prevention process for two decades. Mr. Tahamtani concurs with Mr. Barron’s observations by stating “you have a segment that still has not heard about 811” and “the other segments are the people who assume that all marks (including old marks) are still good, that somebody else has called…” (working under somebody else’s ticket) “…or
811 they have (are working with) an expired ticket.”
Interviews with notification center professionals provided these common reasons why an excavator may risk digging without calling: • Competition between excavators is intense. Customers often demand rapid service and will threaten to take their business elsewhere if an excavator will not comply. As a result, contacting the notification center may take a back seat to the financial pressures of possible lost business. Many professional excavators rely on an administrative person to contact the notification center, but these locate requests may not be submitted in a timely manner as a result of competing priorities. • Mistaken beliefs about the actual location of buried lines. Some excavators believe they can gauge the route of buried lines based on where enclosures, valves or junction boxes are located and the point where lines connect to a building. Excavators in rural areas have reported that the location is so remote that they believe there is no buried infrastructure. • Faulty cost-benefit analysis. An excavator may choose not to call before digging because they have concluded it is cheaper to hit the line and pay for the repair then it is to delay the start of excavation.
• A locate request is not required for shallow digging. Excavators who believe utility lines are buried deeper than their excavation may risk digging without requesting line locates. • Previous negative experiences with the notification process. Due to previous negative experiences with one or more stakeholders, some excavators believe that the entire damage prevention process is broken and it won’t matter if they obtain a locate request and wait for marks. Vic Weston, former President and CEO of Tri-State Boring, Inc. and member of the CGA Board of Directors, holds the members of his stakeholder group to a high level of
accountability. He notes that “a professional excavator never fails to call. It’s the unprofessional and marginal contractors that fail to call.” Mr. Weston believes that a lack of planning and inadequate management go hand-in-hand. There might be poor communication between the manager, superintendent, and foreman when filing a locate request, but “in proper management, the manager should be the one who calls and plans the sequence of work.”
Andy Hartmann, Director of Operations for Hartmann Construction, has nearly 50 years’ experience in the construction industry. He is the private excavating contractor’s representative on the Nebraska 811 Board of Directors. Mr. Hartmann believes that while planning for damage prevention sounds simple, “There are times when contractors must decide on whether or not to act upon unplanned lastminute requests from customers. A customer may say ‘If you don’t do it, then contractor X over here will do it for me without any delay.’ Under those circumstances, there is a clear financial incentive to undertake the risk, continue work, and thus prevent the loss of a valuable customer.” Mr. Hartmann always digs with a locate request even when pressured by a customer to skip the waiting period. Most of the time, Mr. Hartmann finds, a customer understands the importance of preventing damages. As Mr. Hartmann explains to reluctant customers, “Is it worth taking a chance because you don’t want to take the time to do it right and then have someone killed or injured for life? Do I want to go to someone’s family and tell them the bad news? That’s what runs through my head.” As a Nebraska 811 Board Member, he has heard from contractors who are repeat offenders. They admit to digging without a locate because the cost of repairing a broken utility line is less costly than shutting down an operation to wait for lines to be marked. He also observes that excavators in smaller towns or rural areas seem to call less than excavators in larger cities due to the perception that there are fewer underground lines in those areas. He has encountered excavators who have been in the industry for decades who choose to skip filing a locate request due to their perceived familiarity with the lines in an area they have excavated previously. In addition, he believes there is no reason to lose faith in the system because it is set in
place to streamline the locating process and to keep the excavator, his crew, the environment, and the utility safe. “The CGA reports that less than 1% of damages occur when a One Call has been made.” stated Mr. Weston.
A poll of Facebook users asked why people (all types of excavators) failed to call before digging. Over 100 people responded to the post with the most common replies: • Never heard about calling 811 before, uneducated • In a hurry to excavate due to deadlines or impatience • Unaware of the dangers or expenses of not calling 811 first • Thinking they already know where the utility lines are • Ignorance (feeling invincible) • Believing underground lines are deeper than they actually are • Not aware they are responsible for the damages they create • Not understanding the 811 service before excavating is the law • Unaware that the service is free in many states • Believing only contractors have to call, the general public is exempt • As owner of their property, nobody can tell them what to do • Out of sight, out of mind The 811 message is widespread and the vast majority of excavators are aware of the importance of completing a locate request before digging. According to Mr. Hartmann, “If contractors say that they don’t know about it, it is because they just don’t want to.” However, Mr. Barron notes that there are still people who don’t fully understand the law, especially if they work for small companies or do not speak English as a primary language. The reasons excavators might risk digging without getting buried lines marked are varied and startling. If damage prevention is truly a shared responsibility, each of us must keep in mind the importance of fulfilling our responsibilities as individual stakeholders working to achieve that goal. All of us can agree with Mr. Weston when he says, “There will always be accidents, but now that they are becoming less and less frequent, I think that’s great.” ESG
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