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September 03, 2010 |

What lies beneath

Calling 811 before you dig is the law of the land and a good system, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t double check all your One Call locates.*

By Tom Jackson

In Texas this past June three construction workers were killed and 11 injured in the span of two days in two separate accidents when the heavy equipment with which they were working hit natural gas pipelines. Investigations indicated that One Call procedures had been followed.

By calling 811 and waiting for the utilities to mark their lines contractors are in most cases absolved from legal liability. But legal absolution doesn’t bring co-workers back from the dead.

Excavation and underground operations have never been safer thanks to efforts by government and industry to improve utility damage prevention. But while the risks are coming down, the fact remains that just one accidental utility strike can injure or kill employees or put your company out of business.

Guilt by association

Safety is the first and foremost reason contractors should double check their locates with their own equipment. But you should also be aware of what an accidental utility strike can do to your public image.

“If you hit a telephone or fiber optic line that cuts off service to a business, that company’s revenue is gone for that day. All they know is the contractor with his name on the truck is the guy who cut off their telephone service,” says Matt Manning, a locator specialist and product manager for electronics at McLaughlin. “They don’t understand that it wasn’t painted correctly.”

What the company calls “smart” transmitter technology along with improved noise reduction allows the McLaughlin Verifier G2 great accuracy in line location and depth calculations. Features include peak and null locating modes, four active frequencies, depth readout, current measurement index (CMI), passive radio search and new data storage and time stamp capability. The depth capacity has been increased to 30 feet.

Another reason contractors should own and use locating equipment is to avoid the delays and disruption caused by mismarked or undetected utilities, says John Bieberdorf, senior product manager for electronics at Ditch Witch. “Ultimately this efficiency is going to save them money. The recommended best practice is to pothole, or visually uncover utilities by hand digging or vacuum excavation. Designating the depth and an accurate centerline with your own equipment can often save hours of work. And in most cases the One Call locators are not going to give you depths,” he says.

The limitations of One Call

While the vast majority of people who work for locating companies and One Call centers are diligent and skilled professionals, there are limitations to what they do. Knowing what these limitations are and being able to supplement their work with your own locating equipment gives you and your crews a much bigger margin of safety.

The locating companies do their best to put the paint marks directly over the utility in question. But there are big fudge factors built into this.