Page 3 - Alabama 811 Magazine 2021 Issue 4

from the desk of
Annette Bowman
Since the start of the “call before you dig” focus over 50 years ago, the landscape of excavating around underground
facilities has become more complex. What use to be potentially gas or water lines installed underground has now
expanded to include many other underground facility types. This has added to the complexity of what the excavator faces when working around these buried facilities. It has also added
to the complexity of accurately locating specific facilities. In addition, the number of requests that are processed daily has increased astronomically. For Alabama in 2021 there has been
a 400% increase in notifications since our system started.
With all these factors in play, the excavating industry has found the importance of finding new and advanced technologies to utilize when working around these buried facilities. This edition of the Alabama 811 magazine will spotlight some of these technologies and how excavators are utilizing their creativity to improve the efficiencies in the field.
In addition, Common Ground Alliance (CGA) has a Technology Committee that searches and reviews technologies available in the damage prevention industry. Visit their site (www.commongroundalliance.com) to view the 2021 Technology Report.
Annette Bowman Executive Director Alabama 811
2021, Issue 4
Alabama 811 • 1