You’ve probably seen the stories in the news about a construction worker hitting an underground utility, like a gas line, and getting severely injured or even losing his or her life. Or, you may have heard about projects getting delayed when workers come across utility lines that they didn’t know about prior to the start of the project. Being in the underground utility locating business, we hear these stories all the time. Many of them don’t make the news, so they are even more common than the average person realizes.
Not all contractors do their due diligence when it comes to locating underground utilities. This is a corner that some contracting companies will cut to save a few dollars or to keep the project moving forward if they are under a tight timeline. Unfortunately, it puts people at risk when this preventative measure is not taken. It typically isn’t the owner of the contracting company on the excavator placing himself or herself in danger, and if anything happens, they can just call it an unfortunate “accident,” when in reality, the situation was very preventable.
Don’t let your contractor’s negligence turn into an accident. Hold your contractor accountable to having a subsurface investigation done prior to the start of construction. In many cases, simply calling 8-1-1 isn’t enough. They also need to call in one of the private underground utility locating services like Enhanced Scanning.
We don’t want to be too hard on contractors though. Property owners and engineers also have a responsibility to make sure it is safe to proceed with a project by locating and mapping underground utilities—both public and private. In fact, it can make more sense to bring in an underground utility locating service during the design phase of the project, rather than waiting until right before construction begins.
In other states, such as Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, there are strict laws requiring underground utility investigations prior to construction projects, but in states like California where our company does the majority of our underground utility locating work, things are a bit more lax. That often leaves it up to private parties to ensure this important step is taken care of. If you are a property owner, don’t assume that your contractor or engineer is handling it—make sure it is!
Many people don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to private utilities. Contractors who have never experienced an accident involving buried utilities might not have a good sense of the potential danger of digging into the unknown, and many property owners have even less of an idea about worst-case scenarios. The advertising around the “Call Before You Dig” campaign has certainly helped to bring awareness to the dangers of hitting buried utilities, but there is a lot more work to be done—especially as it pertains to private underground utility locating.
If you are in need of our private underground utility locating services, contact us at Enhanced Scanning. We offer rapid response times and thorough scanning services in Riverside and San Diego Counties, and throughout Southern California.