Page 20 - Alabama 811 Magazine 2022 Issue 2

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
National Recommendations
Overall, Continuum developed a set of 13 national recommendations that are demanded frequently among the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the city of Chicago. A subset of these recommendations is applied to each state based upon the state’s performance and characteristics. In addition, there are multiple unique conditions where a state-specific recommendation was appropriate and made by Continuum. National opportunities to improve include the following:
1. No Exemptions: Require all asset owners and operators, including municipalities and departments of transportation (DOT), to join and participate in the 811 system.
2. Mandatory Damage Reporting: Refine the dig law to require reporting of all damages to all underground utility types to support effective data collection, process improvement, damage adjudication, and enforcement.
3. Balanced Enforcement: Cause enforcement authority to weigh involvement of all primary participants in a damage and in a fair and balanced fashion hold the asset owner, excavator, and locator appropriately responsible in the damage adjudication process.
4. Third-Party Enforcement Board: Develop or enhance third- party investigation and enforcement board, with a balanced number of representatives from each stakeholder group, imbued with both responsibility and authority to manage the entire damage adjudication process.
5. Standardize Minimum Notification Time: Standardize the ticket notification time to a minimum of two full business days after the day/date of a call.
6. Ineffective Penalty Structure: Bring balance to the penalty structure or amount so that asset owners, excavators, and locators each face similar risks and responsibility.
7. Effective Metrics: Identify, develop, collect, and track metrics that effectively support trending and continuous improvement of the state damage prevention performance. Mandatory reporting is necessary to accomplish this effort. a. Develop and track metrics that support behavioral change in addition to
metrics designed to track violations of the law.
8. Annual Reporting to CGA and DIRT: Require state entity(s) responsible for the oversite of the 811 system and collection and adjudication of compliance or damage reports, ticket volumes, etc., to submit data to the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) to support preparation of the annual DIRT Report.
9. Positive Response Requirement: A web-based electronic positive response requirement by all asset owners / locators through the 811 system.
10.
a. Ticket holders can choose how to receive positive response from this electronic system.
Excavation Site Accurate Description:
a. Premark / White-line Requirement: Require pre-mark or white-lining of any proposed excavation area that includes traditional reference to intersecting streets/ roadways paired with one or more of the following options: GPS coordinates, electronic white-line using aerial image(s), or physical white-lining.
b. GIS System Adoption by Asset Owners: By 2030, cause all asset owners to adopt a GIS system for asset mapping and require notification through 811 using GPS coordinates.
11.
continuous improvement within the 811 system and more broadly through stakeholder education and public outreach programs.
12. Standardize Ticket Size, Distance, Duration, and Life: Standardize the ticket size, distance, duration, and life to the described characteristics.
13. Educational Resources: Develop and publish electronically an excavator’s manual that is updated and republished every 5 years or when an update to the law takes place, whichever is more frequent.
Study conducted by Continuum Capital 913-345-0403 www.continuumcapital.net
Continuous Improvement: Develop a culture of
Exhibit 3
National Utility Locate System Cost Impacts
As previously noted, the 2019 estimated national total damage cost is approximately $30 billion to annual and out-of-pocket cost to the system. An additional $60 billion in waste, inefficiency, and excess cost is imbedded in the system and largely invisible. The 13 recommendations proposed, would eliminate $40 billion of the combined $90 billion in damage and waste cost over a 3-5-year timeline, where these benefits exceed the implementation cost of $1.2 billion by a factor of 33x over the 3-5-year implementation timeline (Exhibit 3 – National Utility Locate Systems Cost Impacts).
18 • Alabama 811 2022, Issue 2