CGA Applauds NULCA Paper on Utility Damages

WASHINGTON – A new research paper describes how unmapped or poorly mapped facilities, excessive one-call tickets, surging infrastructure projects and outdated architecture have created an unsustainable situation for locating and safely excavating around buried utilities.

In a paper entitled “System Designed to Fail,”  NULCA (the National Utility Locating Contractors Association), provides a new analysis of systemic challenges in the one-call process and preventing damage to buried utility infrastructure.

According to the report, “The 811 system was designed roughly fifty years ago for a world processing less than one million locate requests per year. It was made free to excavators to encourage adoption. That made sense in 1974… Last year, the system processed more than 43.5 million incoming requests, generating nearly 265 million transmissions to facility operators. The architecture has not changed.”

Common Ground Alliance (CGA), the national non-profit association dedicated to protecting underground utility lines and the people who dig near them, issued a statement on the NULCA analysis.

“NULCA’s new paper underscores the urgent need for all stakeholders – facility owners, excavators, locators and policymakers – to embrace their shared accountability to protect vital underground infrastructure,” said Sarah Magruder Lyle, President and CEO of CGA and Executive Director of the Damage Prevention Action Center (DPAC).

The Common Ground Alliance and the Damage Prevention Action Center are committed to facilitating the collaboration necessary to address systemic challenges, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the 811 system, and achieve our collective goal of significant damage reduction. This, however, requires all stakeholders to commit to addressing these issues.” 

Each year, buried utility lines are damaged nearly 200,000 times by digging, at an annual cost of $30 billion nationwide. More than 30 million miles of buried power, water, electric, fiber, natural gas and other utilities run underground across America.

This buried infrastructure is at risk from multiple systemic challenges including inadequate facility mapping, contracts that are not performance based, a surge in data center and other infrastructure construction, and insufficient workforce to accurately locate buried utilities. Consequences of damage to these utilities range from disruption of critical services to injuries and fatalities.

Common Ground Alliance (CGA) is a member-driven association of nearly 4,000 damage prevention professionals spanning every facet of the underground utility industry. Established in 2000, CGA is committed to saving lives and preventing damage to North American underground infrastructure by promoting effective damage prevention practices.

The Damage Prevention Action Center advocates for public policies and industry practices that protect our Nation’s critical underground utility infrastructure and those who work and live near these important assets.

For more, go to www.nulca.org.