FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 7, 2026
Ahead of National 811 Day, New Book Estimates Up to 1.2 Million Underground Utility Strikes and $150 Billion in Annual Costs
Holding Back Disaster examines why buried infrastructure damage remains at record levels – and how better mapping, locating, policy, technology, and coordination could prevent it
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the nation prepares to mark National 811 Day on August 11, a new Routledge book warns that the familiar instruction to contact 811 before digging is only the first step in protecting the vast network of pipelines, cables, wires, and other critical infrastructure beneath the United States.
Released next week, Holding Back Disaster: Protecting Lives and Infrastructure Through Excavation Damage Prevention, by Scott Landes and Benjamin R. Dierker, arrives as a national measure of damage to buried utilities stands at a record high. The book estimates that the United States likely experiences between 600,000 and 1.2 million excavation damage incidents annually, with damage and associated economic impact potentially costing as much as $150 billion each year.
The book arrives as the Common Ground Alliance’s (CGA) 2025 Damage Information Reporting Tool places the CGA Index at 102 – its highest score since the current index was established. The baseline year for the index is also believed to have been a record high in 2022. The analysis was based on 221,717 voluntarily submitted unique damage reports and found that utility strikes continued to increase alongside construction activity.
“National 811 Day should begin with a simple action – contact 811 before every dig – but it should not end there,” said Dierker, executive director of the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure. “The record-high damage index shows that public awareness alone cannot solve a system shaped by incomplete maps, private lines, fragmented laws, workforce constraints, project pressures, and rapidly accelerating construction. Holding Back Disaster brings that larger system into view.”
The United States has an estimated 50 million miles of buried infrastructure carrying energy, electricity, water, communications, and other essential services. Yet the people, institutions, records, technologies, and laws responsible for protecting those systems remain largely invisible to the public.
“People see paint and flags on the ground, but rarely see the profession, technology, coordination, and human judgment behind them,” said Landes, a damage-prevention entrepreneur and industry leader with more than four decades of experience. “This book brings that hidden world into view – including the lessons paid for in lives, the practices that prevent damage, and the tools that could make the system safer.”
Findings and stories from Holding Back Disaster
- An underground network of extraordinary scale. The United States has an estimated 50 million miles of buried pipes, cables, and wires supporting energy, telecommunications, transportation, water, public safety, and everyday economic activity.
- As many as 1.2 million strikes each year. The book develops a conservative national range of approximately 600,000 to 1.2 million annual excavation damage incidents – substantially more than the number captured through voluntary industry reporting.
- An economic burden that could reach $150 billion. Repair costs are only part of the impact. Construction delays, emergency response, service interruptions, traffic disruption, environmental damage, lost productivity, project inefficiency, and cascading business losses may raise the annual economic cost associated with excavation damage to as much as $150 billion.
- 811 is essential – but it is not a complete inventory of everything underground. The standard 811 process primarily coordinates the locating of participating public utilities. A commonly cited industry estimate places entities covered through 811 at roughly 35 percent, with the remaining 65 percent consisting of private and other facilities. Lines on hospital grounds, college campuses, military bases, airports, refineries, industrial sites, and private property may therefore require a separate private locator.
- Six pipeline accidents helped create the modern damage-prevention movement. Major incidents during 1993 and 1994 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Virginia prompted a national workshop led by the National Transportation Safety Board, subsequent federal recommendations, the Common Ground Study, and ultimately the creation of the Common Ground Alliance in 2000. The six accidents caused 10 deaths and as many as 200 injuries. One New Jersey rupture reportedly generated more than 200,000 calls to 911, overwhelming the emergency communications system.
- Excavation damage can remain hidden for years before becoming fatal. The book recounts the 1999 Olympic Pipeline tragedy in Bellingham, Washington, where investigators identified pipeline damage caused during construction five years before the eventual rupture. When the gasoline pipeline failed, fire traveled approximately 1.5 miles along a creek and killed an 18-year-old man and two 10-year-old boys.
- Existing fiber-optic cable can be used to “hear” unauthorized digging. Distributed fiber-optic sensing can convert a single fiber strand into a continuous sensor capable of identifying excavators, jackhammers, saw-cutting, shovels, manhole openings, leaks, gunshots, and explosions in real time. The technology can detect excavation activity from as far as 30 feet away, potentially allowing existing and unused “dark fiber” to protect infrastructure without installing new cameras or individual sensors. The Texas811 Guardian program is currently piloting this opportunity.
- The industry agrees on its central problems more than conventional debate suggests. Original research in the book collected input representing 13 of the damage-prevention industry’s 16 stakeholder groups. Locators, 811 centers, facility operators, excavators, engineers, and other participants identified broadly similar priorities. Mapping and locating emerged as the clearest challenges, followed by weak data, inflexible rules, misaligned incentives, workforce pressures, and safety culture.
A national issue with consequences in every community
Excavation damage affects nearly every major infrastructure beat. A single strike can cause a natural gas explosion, disable a fiber network, interrupt electric service, contaminate water, shut down a road or construction project, release hazardous material, or force an evacuation.
The issue is national, but implementation is highly local. State excavation laws, regional 811 centers, municipal permitting, utility records, construction contracting, emergency response, enforcement practices, and the availability of trained locators all influence what happens at an individual jobsite.
For local and regional reporters, Holding Back Disaster provides broader context for gas-line strikes, fiber outages, water and sewer damage, delayed road projects, broadband construction, utility emergencies, and public-safety incidents occurring within their communities. For national reporters, the book connects those local events to federal infrastructure investment, pipeline safety, energy reliability, broadband deployment, transportation construction, workforce policy, and regulatory oversight.
Backed by federal, policy, and industry leaders
Holding Back Disaster opens with a foreword by Mary E. Peters, the 15th U.S. Secretary of Transportation, who led the department when the national 811 number was publicly launched in 2007.
The afterword is written by Robert “Bob” Kipp, founding president of the Common Ground Alliance and one of the central figures in the development of the modern North American damage-prevention system.
The book has also received endorsements from:
- Neil Chatterjee, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
- DJ Gribbin, former special assistant to the president for infrastructure policy;
- Timothy P. Butters, former acting administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration;
- Jeff Wiese, former associate administrator for pipeline safety;
- Andrew P. Morriss, professor of law and international affairs at Texas A&M University;
- Jim Anspach, distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and member of the National Academy of Construction;
- Utility, construction, 811, locating, telecommunications, insurance, engineering, emergency-management, and infrastructure-technology leaders from across North America and internationally.
The book combines infrastructure history, accident investigations, original research, policy analysis, operational guidance, expert perspectives, emerging technology, and human stories. It is intended for utility and construction professionals, policymakers, regulators, engineers, safety and risk managers, emergency responders, journalists, educators, students, and members of the public seeking to understand the systems beneath their communities.
Media availability
Landes and Dierker are available for interviews about:
- The meaning and limitations of the record-high national damage index;
- The book’s estimates of annual incidents and economic costs;
- What 811 does – and which private facilities it may not cover;
- Pipeline, utility, fiber, water, and construction safety;
- Differences among state excavation laws and enforcement systems;
- Emerging technologies capable of detecting digging in real time;
- Workforce, mapping, locating, data, and infrastructure-policy challenges;
- Local excavation incidents and their broader national context.
About the authors
Scott Landes is an entrepreneur, inventor, publisher, and global conference founder with more than 40 years of leadership in underground infrastructure safety and damage prevention. He holds multiple patents related to damage-prevention products and systems, is a former co-chair of the Common Ground Alliance Education Committee, and is a recipient of the CGA Jim Barron Award and a special recognition at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Facility Notification Centers Association.
Benjamin R. Dierker, JD, MPA, is executive director of the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure, an independent, nonpartisan infrastructure think tank. He has authored more than 75 policy reports and is a widely cited expert on infrastructure governance, innovation, safety, resilience, and risk.
Scott and Benjamin are both board members for the North American Private Utility Association (NAPUA).
About the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure
The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure is an independent, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to infrastructure. Through research, education, and public engagement, Aii advances innovation across industry and public policy to improve the safety, efficiency, and resilience of the nation’s infrastructure.
Book information
Holding Back Disaster: Protecting Lives and Infrastructure Through Excavation Damage Prevention
By Scott Landes and Benjamin R. Dierker
Published by Routledge
Released August 10, 2026
Available through Routledge and major booksellers
Book Listing here:
Book Preview Available along with Chapter Abstracts here:
Media Contact:
Benjamin R. Dierker
Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure
bdierker@aii.org
(703) 574-7376
SOURCE: Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure