Underground Construction - April 2018 - 16

Jeff Griffin | Senior Editor

CGA Issues Report Examining Advancements, Gaps in

Underground Safety Tech

T

The Common Ground Alliance
(CGA) has firmly established itself as the primary driving force
for preventing damage to underground utilities.
Composed of membership
representing every area involved
in the underground construction industry, CGA is best known
for its Best Practices Guide,
successful efforts to establish
the toll-free 811 call-beforeyou-dig number, and its annual
Damage Information Reporting
Tool (DIRT) report. This year,
the association has added a new
report about technologies used
to identify locations of buried
infrastructure.
The Technology Advancements
and Gaps in Underground Safety
Report was presented at CGA's
annual meeting in March, and
announced in a press release
while the event was underway.
Based on a survey of members,
CGA plans to issue the report
annually. It can be downloaded
from the CGA website
(commongroundalliance.com).
"Our inaugural Technology
Report allows stakeholders in
every facet of damage prevention
to assess existing technologies
that they may be able to apply to
their particular segment of the
safe digging process," said Sarah
Magruder Lyle, CGA president
and CEO. "The report provides
technology developers with an
opportunity to examine areas
where there are market opportunities for new solutions, and we
hope they'll work towards developing partnerships and advanced
technologies that the industry is
asking for."
Structure of the report includes a summary of existing
technologies to prevent damage
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APRIL 2018 | UConOnline.com

"The program's success so far serves
as an example to other gas providers
undertaking similar projects to find and
remove crossbores," the test report
concluded. "It is also a testament to the
success of partnerships between utility
owners, manufacturers and contractors."
to underground infrastructure,
identification of opportunities or
gaps in existing technologies, and
three case histories of projects
employing new or emerging technologies.
The existing technologies recognize the full range of methods
being used today to locate and
mark utilities, ranging from OneCall, locating equipment, imaging
and public awareness efforts.

Gaps
Likely to draw the most interest
is the "opportunities and gaps"
segment which lists multiple topics under each category heading.
Below are some both obvious and
not-so-obvious needs and "gaps"
documented in the report:
* Locating
* Excavating
* GPS/Digital Mapping
* Mobile device/ mobile data
collection
* Ticket management and
processing
* Education/training
Examples of points listed in
the "new technologies" section
include ticket risk assessment;
mobile access to locating marks;
a construction documentation
and safety checklist app, LSBUD

(line-search-before-you-dig); a
buried excavation alert system;
mapping of metallic and nonmetallic lines with radio gradiometer; and field inspection data
software.
Suggestions about gaps and
new technology include specialized laser-based gas leak
detection, predictive analytics/
risk management assessment,
locatable plastic pipe, data visualization, standardization of
GIS (geographic information
system), documenting assets
during routine maintenance,
mapping assets through mainline
inspections, better GPS (global
positioning system) strength in
urban "canyons," software for
quality feedback about GPS coordinates, and development of GPS
data quality.
The above information summarizes some of the findings;
see the full report for complete
details. The charts show who
responded to questions asked in
the survey and answers to questions in the survey.

Categories
The top categories of people
submitting information for the
survey were One-Call, locators,

excavators, manufacturers,
excavators and "other."
Leading recommendations
for new technologies were in the
categories of excavation ticket
management, locating and GPS/
digital mapping/GIS.
Survey respondents said stakeholders that could most benefit
from technology improvements
are gas distribution, excavator,
gas transmission and locating.
The survey and report were
conducted by CGA's Technology
Committee.
"Technology is an important
component of damage prevention," concludes the report. "As
such, it needs to be identified,
evaluated, and shared so that
anyone involved in protecting
underground assets has an opportunity to use that technology for their own regional needs.
This report shares the collective
knowledge about these technologies with the goal of furthering
discussions, improvements and
better ways of using them.
"The CGA Technology Committee will strive to expand
upon and improve this annual
report for it to serve as an almanac of underground damage
prevention."
Thomas Young, Technology
http://www.commongroundalliance.com http://www.UConOnline.com
Underground Construction - April 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underground Construction - April 2018
