Underground Construction - February 2020 - 46

The Last Word... (cont. from page 50)
missed facility locates is an issue of ongoing frustration to most excavation contractors and certainly to the associations that represent
them. However, recent media coverage of failures to meet locating
and marking responsibilities by several prominent underground
facility operators sparked swift action by these groups, which have
been pushing enforcement authorities to hold them accountable.
In June, local media sources in Minneapolis reported that a
large telecom carrier had not responded or was late in responding
to more than 68,000 locate tickets over the course of only a few
months and that 10,000 tickets were completely unanswered since
the beginning of April.
Soon after, it was reported that the same carrier had a backlog
of some 30,000 locate requests in Arizona. Because the carrier had
released the largest facility locating company operating in these
states and several others, we expect to hear similarly disastrous
scenarios in other parts of the country.
This unprecedented media attention on the importance of facility locating grew, and it was soon reported that a gas distribution
utility in Michigan was being investigated about late responses to
some 20,000 locate requests.
Lastly, one of the leading utilities behind establishing the GSS
program recently "agreed to pay $65 million to settle claims it
falsified records and misrepresented how quickly it responded to
excavators' requests to locate and mark gas pipelines," according
to a local ABC news affiliate, which added that this was happening
"as early as 2010 (and) said workers were falsifying records of
ground-marking at excavation sites."

An injection of badly needed credibility
GSS has recently gone through significant and positive administrative and personnel changes, including the hiring of a highly
respected, veteran industry executive to run the organization. This
has injected much-needed credibility to staff leadership of an organization that was perceived by contractor associations to be little
more than a distraction, developed by operators under the gun in
the wake of high-profile incidents, and a boondoggle benefitting
only the company selling GSS software.
That said, the main concerns remain: there have been no
substantive data or trends released from GSS, no further public
discussions of a pre-excavation metric, and no change in the coercive nature of contractor participation. In fact, the only consistent
practice maintained since GSS was introduced is the annual collection of contractor dues, usually to the tune of $2,400. Recognizing
that between 1,000 and 1,400 contractors have been required to
participate since 2016, we're talking about millions of contractor
dollars in play. This begs the question: what exactly is GSS doing
with this significant revenue?
At the time this article was written, there were expectations
that GSS may restart efforts to develop a pre-excavation metric,
and that some data may be made available at some point. We hope
that the data provided will include important information, such
as root cause of reported hits, and not simply flat percentages of
damage reductions enjoyed by certain GSS members over a given
time period. Relevant data will reflect the root causes behind these
damages and what actions have made any reductions possible.
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FEBRUARY 2020 | UConOnline.com

Keeping our eye on the prize
Excavation contractors have seen a big uptick in the number of delayed and/or unanswered locate tickets over the past several years.
Increased excavation means more 811 locate requests, and the
increase in demand makes it imperative that underground facility
operators are prepared to meet their locating responsibilities.
Significant challenges in preventing underground facility damages
remain, and the answer is not to measure the performance of one
stakeholder. The contractor associations working on these issues
have long maintained that damage prevention, while including
responsibilities held by a range of stakeholders, rests on three fundamental pillars: 1) membership of all owners/operators of underground facilities to the state One-Call center, 2) accurate and timely
locating of facilities, and 3) "potholing" of underground facilities.
In addition, broader issues need to be addressed by industry.
Contractual language that prohibits or does not compensate for
potholing can be as problematic as local ordinances that prohibit
breaking pavement. Both restrict the same fundamental best
practice of visually identifying an underground facility prior to
excavation. True collaboration between operators and contractors
is needed to tackle these "big picture" issues.
Almost three years ago, I wrote an article about GSS months after
it began soliciting operator members, who in turn began coercing
their contractors to participate as a condition of doing business. I
said in that piece that members of these contracting associations
work tirelessly to perform superior work, while providing a safe and
effective work environment, and that damage prevention is and
remains a fundamental part of that. The goal of increased safety will
always be front and center, which is why we support the collaborative and highly successful approach of promoting damage prevention
best practices advocated by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA).
Protecting underground infrastructure is a system and focusing
on one part of the process is not going to address systematic challenges. GSS metrics do not address these systematic issues, and GSS
does not provide a venue for solutions. And, of course, the program
singles out one part of this process. The cooperative and holistic
approach offered by CGA leads to its success. All stakeholders are at
the table, all responsibilities are considered, and collective efforts to
improve overall performance is the name of the game.
We ask facility operators currently involved in GSS: are you really getting what you paid for? If so, what exactly is that deliverable?
Without comprehensive data and reportable trends or any tangible
results, this program will remain little more than a distraction.
Ensuring the safety of all involved in excavation construction is of
paramount importance to excavation contractors, and these associations will continue to promote shared responsibility in damage
prevention and balanced enforcement of the law. We encourage
underground facility operators to do the same. *
EBEN WYMAN has worked in Washington, D.C. for 25 years,
starting at the U.S. DOT's Office of Pipeline Safety, followed
by 12 years as vice president of Government Relations
for the National Utility Contractors Association. In 2012,
he founded E. Wyman Associates LLC, which represents
several association clients serving contractors, manufacturers and distributors
operating in various segments of the construction industry.

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Underground Construction - February 2020

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