Underground Construction - July 2017 - 15

forward, the idea is to use local
funding to support local job
creation.
* School selection and curriculum
development: The initial selection was based on an internet
search of a variety of Ohio colleges based on several criteria,
including availability of space to
allow for an outside construction training "lab," truck driving
training programs to obtain a
commercial driver's license, a
variety of construction equipment, and welding and pipefitting programs.
The team is currently evaluating several colleges and trade
schools, focusing on program and
curriculum development. Local
union representation may present
opportunities through apprenticeships, which may save time,
money and resources by allowing
some recruits to "test-out" of new
training/testing in some markets. The pilot team is also raising
awareness in middle school, high
school and other institutions with
students who may be interested in
construction careers. Women, minority, former military and other
audiences are all being considered
in this important industry pilot
program.
Team leaders indicate that class
size will be limited (20-60 people)
to allow for hands-on training. The
collaborative approach of the Ohio
pilot should go a long way to promote cooperation and avoid "trust
issues" in recruitment and retention of future workers in the utility
construction industry.

Gold Shovel Standard
One of the more highly anticipated discussions regarded the Gold
Shovel Standard (GSS), a certification and monitoring program
rolled out last year as a nonprofit
organization. Many in the excavation contracting industry believe
GSS will unnecessarily impose a
new layer of training, reporting
and information-sharing requirements for contractors, while not
addressing the fundamentals of
July 2017 Underground Construction

damage prevention. This panel
included two utility members of
the GSS board of directors and two
contractor participants who, along
with several hundred contractors,
have been forced to participate in
GSS as a condition of doing business with certain utility customers.
The GSS program is supposedly
going through considerable revision. Unfortunately, contractors
were not invited from the beginning to help develop the program,
which has led to what many consider overreaching requirements
and unworkable metrics, among a
range of other problems.
When asked what operators
hoped to accomplish through GSS,
utilities on the panel said that with
an increasing regulatory framework and a rise in second-party
excavation hits, a need became
apparent for certification of contractors' safety management systems (SMS) for both excavators
and locators. Many OQ providers either could not or would not
provide these services, so the GSS
approach seemed appropriate.
However, tangible results have
been evasive largely because of
ongoing problems in developing
a workable metric and a resulting
lack of data. According to these
utilities, more contractors and
utilities are needed to belong and
participate in the GSS program.
The contractors on the panel,
both of which are GSS participants, were asked if they saw any
benefit to the GSS approach. Both
said their participation in the GSS
program was forced as a condition
of working for these utilities. One
contractor, who serves as DCA's
primary representative on the
Common Ground Alliance (CGA)
Best Practices Committee, said the
GSS program seemed to "fly in the
face of everything CGA stands for."
Another contractor believed that
the only way an approach like GSS
will work is if its scope is limited
to a utility and its contractors, and
not as a nationwide monitoring
and scoring program.

Most contractors have thorough SMS programs in place
already and adding another set
of reporting requirements seems
to many to be a shortsighted
approach to improving damage
prevention. That said, the utility
board members reiterated their
commitment to establish a practical metric that the contractor community can buy into.
They also committed to focus
on ensuring accurate locates, and
agreed that this will take considerable action by the operators themselves. Shifting the attention to
contract locators from excavators
will not suffice. Operators must
recognize their own role in ensuring accurate and timely locating of
underground facilities.
A contractor pointed to the
need for municipal participation in
One-Call to achieve any real damage prevention, with or without
the GSS program. Municipal governments operate a wide range of
underground facilities, from water
and sewer infrastructure to transit
systems, traffic signals and other
facilities. To date, GSS has a small
handful of municipalities that
have joined the program.
Comparisons to CGA were briefly discussed on this panel. Many
inside and outside CGA circles
have commented that it has leveled off in terms of effectiveness.
While there have been initiatives
within CGA and PHMSA to enhance enforcement of existing
damage-prevention laws and regulations, it was clear that GSS is not
about enforcing state law.
Currently, contractors are allowed to opt-out of reporting until
a realistic metric is developed.
While gas distribution continues
to be the primary market, others
such as broadband, electric and
municipals have for the most part
declined to join GSS. To many,
this begs the question: where is
the value and why are gas utilities
continuing to push the incomplete
GSS program without a workable
metric?

DCA OQ Portability Task Force
DCA members continue to be frustrated by the lack of portability of
their OQ programs from operator
to operator. Last year, DCA created a task force of contractors,
OQ providers and regional gas
associations to enhance the ability
of contractors to utilize their OQ
programs among multiple operators. The task force is currently
developing a "roadmap" to OQ
portability, and several members
rolled out initial elements in a
panel discussion moderated by the
chairman of the task force.
Workshop attendees were reminded of the "80/20" portability concept, which holds that 80
percent of covered task knowledge
and performance is the same irrespective of a given operator's pipeline system, while 20 percent is
unique to the operator's standards
and procedures. The task force
believes that the 80 percent is fully
portable and the supplemental 20
percent will require qualifications
specific to the operator's unique
system. Supporters of portability
point to the analogous commercial
driver's license (CDL), where those
holding them can use these CDL
credentials from state to state.
Early in the process, the task
force recognized the need to
demonstrate strong tangible benefits to the operator. Consistency
of OQ processes through training,
testing and performance evaluations via a standardized process
might reduce "onboarding" time
and associated costs. Standardization may increase the labor pool
and help address an aging workforce in the industry, and avoid
significant loss of industry knowledge base as industry veterans
retire. Possibly most important,
a more standardized OQ process
may enhance regulatory buy-in
through an auditable and consistent process.
The "roadmap to portability"
includes three tracks related to
people, process, and program
evaluation.
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Underground Construction - July 2017

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