Call before you dig: Federal legislation may mandate one-call systems
✍ Scribed by Smith, William H.
- Book ID
- 102842922
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Weight
- 545 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0743-5665
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
reventing damage to underground natural gas piping and facilities makes as much sense to regulators as it does to the utilities. When pipes are damaged, there is a risk of personal injury, loss of utility service, and expensive repair. Immediately, damage to underground facilities may have a sometimes deadly effect. At other times, days or years later, facilities weakened by contact or ground disturbance can fail.
Another affected group is excavators. Building and construction activity is the most obvious part of the excavator population. However, it also includes farmers, gardeners, local government agencies, and other utilities. It should not be surprising that utilities are also major excavators: To build and maintain extensive underground facilities, these companies have to dig. Self-inflicted damage may be a larger problem than most utilities would like to admit.
Excavators have good reasons-ranging from their personnel's safety to expediting work to avoiding damage liability-to avoid striking underground facilities. However, despite these disincentives, the frequency of strikes on underground facilities justifies more aggressive requirements to locate these facilities near excavation work sites, especially when the public safety risks are as headline-grabbing as the recent naniral gas accidents in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.