Underground Construction - February 2018 - 32

Jeff Griﬃn | Senior Editor

CGA Transitions Leadership;
Growth Continues

The Common Ground Alliance
(CGA) has become the primary
driving force in bringing together every organization and each
person that should be concerned
about preventing damage to underground utility infrastructure.
Obviously, it is in the interest
of owners of utilities, and contractors and organizations involved in underground construction, not to accidentally strike
and damage buried pipe and cable. Such incidents disrupt vital
services, are costly to repair and
pose serious safety risks.
The association's membership
includes representatives of utility providers and the contractors who serve them. But CGA
has gone further, with public
awareness campaigns directed
to "fringe" contractors such as
plumbers, fence builders, agricultural operations and the general
public.
Established in 2000, CGA has
grown to a membership of more
than 1,800 individuals, organizations and sponsors from every
facet of the underground utility
industry, and beyond. All have a
common interest. CGA members
have a stake in preventing utility
damage, but they don't necessarily share the approaches for
accomplishing it.
That CGA provides a platform
for these diverse groups and
individuals to work together toward a common goal is key to the
progress evident today.
Last year Bob Kipp, who
served as CGA president from
its formation, retired, and Sarah
Magruder Lyle took over the
association leadership. Underground Construction magazine
32

FEBRUARY 2018 | UConOnline.com

discussed the transition, accomplishments and CGA's future
plans with Khrysanne Kerr, CGA
vice president of communications.
CGA comments
How has the leadership transition been from Bob Kipp to
Sarah Magruder Lyle?
Sarah Magruder Lyle brings with
her a wealth of energy and association knowledge, and she spent
her first day on the job attending a CGA committee meeting
in Houston. She has focused on
building on the solid foundation
established by Bob Kipp, and
on continuing to increase the
organization's visibility as the
lead association for underground
damage prevention.
What were the most significant
accomplishments of the CGA
in 2017?
The Best Practices Guide, a definitive guide for underground
safety and damage prevention, is
the backbone of our effort and is
the industry's most-referenced
damage prevention resource
designed to improve worker
safety, protect vital underground
infrastructure and ensure public
safety during excavation activities. In 2017, CGA released the
15th iteration of the Best Practices Guide. Approximately 200,000
books have been shipped globally
since the inception of the CGA,
as well as countless downloads
from the CGA website.
The 811 call-before-you-dig
campaign celebrated its10th
anniversary in 2017, and that
culminated with more that $7

million in advertising equivalency from CGA stakeholder efforts.
In addition to the widely successful public awareness effort,
CGA also published the most
robust Damage Information
Reporting Tool (DIRT) report
to-date, containing invaluable
information about root causes of
utility damages. (See sidebar for
details.)
As a member-driven organization, CGA achieved a 5.2-percent growth in membership and
sponsorship in 2017, bringing
the total number of organizations to 241. Additionally, CGA
welcomed Quanta Services as a
Platinum Sponsor, making the
company the first professional
contractor to sponsor at CGA's
highest level. With more than
1,800 total members and 350
active committee participants,
CGA is poised to lead the damage-prevention community in to
the next decade.
What are the elements of CGA's
educational and informational
programs, and is there a way to
evaluate their eﬀectiveness?
Total public awareness of the importance of preventing damage
to underground infrastructure
by unaided and aided national public awareness studies has
increased from a combined 20
percent in 2008, to 48 percent
in 2017.
CGA has secured 850 million
media impressions and earned
media exposure exceeding $6
million in value - a level of success achieved without a paid
media campaign. Instead, CGA
creates a comprehensive communications plan filled with media

relations templates, social media
content, instructional videos and
other communications tools that
all damage-prevention stakeholders may use to reach the
public.
National campaigns have included sports marketing partnerships with NASCAR drivers, Triple Crown winning horse jockeys
and NCAA men's basketball tournaments, which all reach people
who are likely to dig on their own
property, according to research
commissioned by CGA.
CGA measures its success
through a reduction in facility
damage events.
In 2004, CGA launched the
Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT), which created
the first-ever national database
of these events, submitted voluntarily and anonymously by
CGA members. CGA estimated in 2004 that approximately
675,000 events occurred in the
United States, and for half of
these events, the root cause was
a failure by excavators to contact
the "call before you dig," one-call
notification center in their area
before starting work.
In 2016 (the most recent year
with complete data) CGA estimated about 380,000 events nationwide, with just one in six being caused by a failure to notify
the one-call center. More simply
put, CGA and its members have
achieved more than a 50-percent
reduction in total national annual damage events during that
12-year span.
Also in 2004, a damage event
occurred about once every two
minutes because the excavator
failed to contact the local one-

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Underground Construction - February 2018

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