SASKATCHEWAN COMMON GROUND ALLIANCE
The
Saskatchewan
Common
Ground Alliance
Preventing damage to underground utilities
By WShannon Doka, Saskatchewan Common Ground Alliance
e have to get more people
to know “what lies below.”
Vast networks of conduits
and cables lay underground, delivering
vital products and services to Saskatchewan
communities – telecommunication and
electrical cables, gas conduits, sewers, water
lines, drainage systems, oil pipelines, etc.
Underground infrastructure is often buried
close to the ground’s surface, which increases
the risk of damages during excavation or rehabilitation
work.
Despite increasing awareness of practicing
caution during excavation or digging work,
damages occur too often. This impacts the environment
and can disrupt services, but more
importantly, it puts the safety of workers and
citizens at risk.
The Saskatchewan Common Ground
Alliance (SCGA) has a mission to protect and
preserve this critical infrastructure.
Representing members of Saskatchewan’s
damage prevention industry, including municipalities,
utility companies, construction and
safety organizations, the SCGA is the voice of
utility infrastructure damage prevention and is
committed to maintaining the highest standards
of safety for citizens, construction workers and
public infrastructure.
The SCGA’s primary objective is to raise utility
damage prevention awareness and share damage
prevention tools and services for use in the
field, most notably the CCGA Underground
Infrastructure Damage Prevention Best
Practices 3.0 and the Damage Information
Reporting Tool (DIRT) report.
The SCGA, via the DIRT database, gathers
meaningful data regarding the occurrence of
facility contacts and analyzes the root causes of
damage to underground infrastructure.
The Common Ground Alliance (CGA) developed
DIRT, which provides a summary
and an analysis of damages reported throughout
Canada. It also identifies the root causes of
events, the type of equipment used, when they
occurred and the type of work performed.
The DIRT Report also details an economic
assessment of disruptions, in both direct costs
(cost of repairs) and indirect costs (societal
costs). The consequences of severing a natural
gas line, an underground power line, a fibre
optic cable or damaging a vital water main can
be costly. Utility damage prevention has high
economic importance when direct costs such
as repair labour and materials are considered,
but especially when societal costs are factored
in, such as worker injuries, emergency services
interventions, work and traffic delays and
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