Every year, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) provides funding opportunities to states and stakeholders to improve and protect pipeline safety. One way that is done is by promoting the “damage prevention” process – known by many as the “Call Before You Dig” program. Through a number of…
If there is one thing the latest Common Ground Alliance (CGA) Technology Report makes clear, it is that the damage prevention ecosystem has an embarrassment of riches on its hands in terms of technological innovation. Indeed, a review of other CGA studies and publications along with reports by various regulatory…
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July 27, 2022 CONTACT: John Cassibry, jcassibry@aii.org Washington, D.C, July 27, 2022 — The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) released its latest white paper, Consensus Around Technologies: The Key Communications Technologies that Need to be Adopted to Improve Efficiency and Reduce Excavation…
I have studied damage prevention for several years. From reading reports and best practice guides to ride alongs with locators and even calling in an 811 locate request, I felt like I had a good understanding. But it was this summer when I made an online homeowner locate request that…
Up to this point, we have explored a range of benefits that accrue from the use of technology in the damage prevention process. Not only is technology vital to avoiding damage, but it makes the process more efficient, reduces environmental hazards, enables cost savings, and more. One final benefit emerges…
Every year, nearly $100 billion are lost in the U.S. economy due to excavation damage and the inefficiencies in the system designed to prevent them. With systemic issues unaddressed, these costs are poised to keep rising year after year. What is even worse, Congress enacted a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package…
This blog series Technology Highlight explores some of the ways that investments in innovation lead to better outcomes for infrastructure and public safety. When technology advances, it often becomes cheaper, more widely available and accessible, and helps facilitate faster, safer, and greener projects. This series launched by…
Excavation damages to underground infrastructure – or more simply, digging projects that hit things like pipelines and internet cables – are on a five year upswing. Every year, more sensitive and critical infrastructure is being struck, damaged, and shuttered. Shovels and power tools breaking ground and hitting these unseen service…
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 25, 2021 CONTACT: John Cassibry, jcassibry@aii.org Washington, D.C, May 25, 2021 — The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) released its newest policy brief, Building Back Better And Protecting What We’ve Built. The brief details the rising nationwide crisis of excavation damage…
The recent Colonial pipeline cyber attack and ensuing disruption implicates excavation damage prevention. As industry stakeholders continue to strengthen their damage prevention systems, greater use and reliance on effective technology will be critical. Damage Prevention is the overarching process of avoiding harm to pipelines and other underground infrastructure when digging…
With the year-end omnibus budget and coronavirus stimulus package, the federal government’s top pipeline safety agency was reauthorized. The down-to-the-wire omnibus deal included the reauthorization, which was 447 days overdue, as the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) authorization expired in September of 2019. Due to federal rules and…
The damage prevention industry is critically important for public safety. To properly prevent damage, communication and use of technology are essential. This not only guarantees smooth, efficient, and cost effective projects, it literally saves lives. Every year, millions of dollars in lost productivity, service interruption, property damage, and even serious…
As technology improves, law and regulation must improve for the sake of public safety. Excavation damage has been a leading – and in many years the leading – cause of pipeline incidents for decades. More than ten years ago, Congress addressed what was then the leading contributor to these incidents…
