Subsurface Utilty Partners Consulting Services

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According to the CGA DIRT report there were over 217 thousand utility damages reported in the United States in 2021, with an estimated average cost of 80 thousand dollars per incident. These costs do not account for indirect costs or related project downtime. 

The costs related to these utility damages not only cause budget overruns and potential project losses, damaging the wrong utility in the wrong setting can destroy your company’s financial health for the year or beyond. 

With over 30 years in the damage prevention and utility construction industries Subsurface Utility Partners staff has an in-depth understanding of the root causes of utility damages. Utilizing this experience and observing best practices across multiple excavation industries Subsurface Utility Partners has developed a comprehensive Damage Prevention program that can be customized to your individual operating requirements. 

The majority of damages (approximately 95%) can be broken down into three equally contributing causes.

1. One Call (811) related errors by office or field staff

2. Excavation / contractor related errors in the field

3. Utility locate error or utility plant issues

Subsurface Utility Partners will work closely with your office and field teams to customize a Damage Prevention program based on historical damage causes and best practices. Once your customized program is developed, we are available to participate in rolling out the program to your office and field staff. 

Damage Prevention Training programs include an overview of these topics as well as others that are determined important while working with your team.

1. Increasing communication

2. State One Call Laws

3. Ticket types and dig dates

4. Contributing factors review

5. Locate request, Project Kick off, pre-excavation check lists

6. Documentation recommendations

7. Hand Digging/Potholing best practices

8. Protecting exposed utilities

9. Team training

Damage Investigation Training

1. Top Contributing factors review

2. Investigation check list – damage report

3. Site integrity and investigation staging

4. Measurements

5. Photos

Contact us for more information and to discuss how we can help you reduce utility damages and protect yourself with thorough damage investigations.

Subsurface Utility Partners has designed a comprehensive utility locate training program that focuses on developing a well-rounded utility locate technician. Our quality locate training breaks the cycle of theory-based training prevalent in the industry today. Along with an overview of locate theory our training focuses on field application of methods and techniques. These locating techniques are centered around utility specific approaches developed from over 30 years in the utility locating industry working for large utility companies, providing private utility locating, and performing Subsurface Utility Engineering. 

Our training addresses commonly encountered locating issues caused by how various utility systems are constructed and provides troubleshooting methods to increase the ability to accurately locate these utilities. 

Subsurface Utility Partners locate training program can be customized to your companies specific needs, or our existing training package can be used. Our staff will travel to your site or identify a suitable location for the field training near your location. We will train your technicians utilizing the equipment they use on a daily basis to ensure understanding and comfort with the capability of the equipment. 

We offer one on one or group training for up to ten attendees. The recommended number of days are determined by the specific training package and the number of attendees. 

Our training programs are weighted towards field activity requiring multiple days to complete. Following partial day in-class training our staff can conduct field training while your technicians conduct their day to day locating tasks to minimize the downtime impact to your operation. 

Utility Locate Training Outline 

1.   Field Safety Overview

2.   Locate Theory

3.   Locate Equipment Operation

4.   Utility System Overview

5.   Facility Types and Approach

6.   Identifying What to Locate

7.   Most common Incorrect locating habits

8.   Key locating methods and techniques

9.  Troubleshooting techniques

10. Step by step locate process

11. Written Test

12. Field Evaluation

13. Completion Certificate

Contact us for more information and to discuss the customized training solutions that will benefit your locate technicians.