Damage Prevention Partners,
It is becoming increasingly evident that initiatives like the Utica Shale Play, Seismic Testing and Wind Generation are and will continue to affect excavation and damage prevention efforts in Ohio. Because of this increased activity, the Ohio Utilities Protection Service (O.U.P.S.) has been receiving excavation requests with significant scopes of work and extremely compressed timelines. The industry has not had to deal with these types of large-scale projects in such significant numbers and, in many cases, is not equipped to deal with them.
Realizing that projects and one-call tickets of this magnitude are creating coordination issues within the industry and in order to ensure that these projects can be completed in a timely manner while still protecting the underground infrastructure and public safety, O.U.P.S. facilitated a meeting between interested parties to discuss the issue. The intent of this discussion was to develop process and procedural solutions to ensure each Stakeholder will be able to meet their damage prevention obligations. As a result of last week’s meeting, please find attached a process that the group developed and we hope you will adopt along with us. Please find below links to the following documents:
-
One Call Process for Large Excavation Projects (Details) – This document details the process that excavators, facility owners/locators and O.U.P.S. should follow when dealing with large excavation projects.
-
One Call Process for Large Excavation Projects (Flow Chart) – This document is a simplified version of the detailed text document.
-
Ohio Positive Response Codes – These are the codes that member facility companies may use when responding through O.U.P.S.’ positive response system.
If you have questions please feel free to contact Abby Soto-Pacheco at 800-311-3692 ext. 7245.
| |
|
|
