Locating underground utilities in the United States: A comparative analysis of services provided by private locators

Abstract

The ability to locate underground utilities is imperative for the protection of these facilities and for the coordination of these facilities with transportation projects. The proliferation of underground facilities in the United States has led to an increase in dig-in strikes resulting in loss of services, project delivery delays, injuries, and even deaths. In fact, the Federal Highway Administration found utility-related issues to be one of the top causes of delays for transportation projects. These delays are often attributed to unknown or inaccurate utility location information. This scenario has led to a vast industry of utility location service providers. Additionally, national and state damage prevention laws led to the creation of one-call systems for the purpose of providing a communication conduit between designers or constructors and utility owners and operators. The importance of accurate utility locates and the risk and liability of providing utility location services also led to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standardizing the practice of Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) into a professional service. Even with this standard, there remains misinformation and misunderstandings regarding SUE and non-SUE services provided by private utility location firms. The differences between the services provided by SUE investigations and non-SUE private locating services that do not meet SUE standards has largely been anecdotal. This study serves as an advancement in understanding the distinction of SUE services versus non-SUE services and provides evidence of industry misunderstanding of differences in these service types.

Keywords

• Utility investigation
• Damage Prevention
• Subsurface Utility Engineering