Utilities
Underground Locating

A major utility company in Pennsylvania faced a major challenge when construction work, both their own and others, was causing unacceptably high rates of damage to their underground equipment. Daniel Penn Associates was called in to do an assessment of the utility's entire underground operations which included the following processes:

		Pennsylvania One Call ticket processing;
		Underground locating and marking;
		Mapping and documentation;
		Excavating and construction;
		Damage inspection;
		Claims processing; and
		Damage prevention.

We reviewed each of these areas and a new damage prevention organization was put in place. We were then asked to review each of the individual process annually for two years. Progress was identified in each process and further recommendations for improvement were implemented.

As a result, the utility company has significantly reduced damage occurrences across all utility facilities and across all associated functions including documentation accuracy and availability; underground locating responsiveness and accuracy; crew construction; contractor construction; damage inspection and assessment; damage prevention; and contractor education.

The Bottom Line

Business benefits have ranged from 5% to 40% across the processes identified above, with an average total damage reduction of 18%.

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