A cut communications line can shut down businesses and 911 service; hitting a high voltage cable can cause serious injury or even a fatality; and when people talk about damages to the buried infrastructure the focus is often on gas and hazardous liquid pipelines for obvious reasons. The serious nature of hitting a water or …
DAMAGES to Water/Sewer Pipelines are Costly Too! Read More »
By the time you read this the summer dig season will be in full swing. With all the early season kinks worked out and ticket volumes stabilized, most technicians and supervisors have settled into a familiar workday rhythm and things are humming along on a kind of autopilot. Everyone is in a groove and teams …
2018 Green Cross for Safety Advocate Award Finalists THE NATIONAL SAFETY Council’s mission is to eliminate preventable deaths at work, in homes and communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education and advocacy. Each year they recognize those who have made a significant impact on safety by raising awareness and bringing about change through the …
As underground networks continue to grow, the risk of striking an underground utility line is ever more present. In 2016, below-surface utilities in the U.S. and Canada were damaged 317,869 times, according to the Common Ground Alliance DIRT report (commongrounda-lliance.com/dirt-2016-interactive-report). Utility strikes are avoidable. It’s imperative that horizontal directional drilling (HDD) contractors and operators follow …
Critical Steps To Helping Crews Stay Safe On HDD Jobs Read More »
MASS FAILURE is perhaps the most ubiquitous geohazard. Typically, when one imagines what a landslide looks like, images of mudslides from mountainous regions like California come to mind. These are, after all, what make the national news cycle. Unfortunately, slope failure impacts a wide range of landscapes, even those considered relatively level. For example, the Twin …
Slope Failure Is A Geohazard That Impacts Many Types Of Infrastructure Read More »
University of Central Florida (UCF) utility workers handle daily initiatives that include identifying and mapping the location of underground utility lines. “We have a lot of old utility lines in the ground that haven’t been located in many decades. They have never been marked properly, and it is our job to find them, mark them, …
University of Central Florida Utilizes Vacuum Excavation Read More »
With congested underground easements and roadways, it is becoming increasingly important to visually identify the location of underground utilities such as gas, fiber, water, telecommunications and sewer to prevent an accidental utility strike. However, using a compact excavator or a shovel to expose the line could also damage a utility. To reduce the risk of …
Vacuum Excavator Usage on the Rise: A Better Way to Locate Buried Utilities Read More »
A Risk-Based Approach to Watermain Renewal Modelling In 2016, WSP Canada developed a Master Water Servicing Study for the District of West Vancouver aimed at providing a comprehensive infrastructure upgrades plan to improve the ability of the District’s water system to meet adequate levels of service requirements for its residents. Key to this project was …
Q & A with Robert Edwards and Mark Bruce At the CGA 811 Excavation Safety Conference & Expo held in Phoenix this past March, a panel of industry leaders came together to explore the concerns of the water and sewer industry and address the most important topics of the day. Moderated by Dr. Samuel Ariaratnam …
Highlighting the Differences Between Air and Hydro Vacuum Excavation Vacuum excavation is a combination of two non-mechanical sources to excavate soil and can range from small trailer-mounted systems to large truck-mounted equipment. The first source is pressurized water or air, which is used to loosen soil. Once the soil is loosened, a powerful vacuum system …
