Construction season in Central New York is coming, with Spring a week away. Safety officials want to make sure people know what’s underground before starting to dig – for anything from a home or building, to a pool or fence post. Dig Safely New York hosted contractors at Onondaga Community College today. Executive Director Kevin Hopper says they’ll contact utilities to identify underground problems.
“Whether it’s your gas company, your water company, fiber, phone, television, whatever utilities are there. Then they have two days to come out and mark those utility lines. They’ll report back to Dig Safely New York and say, ‘we’ve marked it; it’s clear; we don’t have anything affected.’ Then when we have all the information, we’ll send that information to you. We call that an automated positive response.”
A contractor or a homeowner will then know where power or other utilities are located before digging for any project. Brandon Schroeder didn’t make the call when he was on a job as an electrician.
“It’s really what I should have done, got the thing shut down and waited for them. But I didn’t want to wait. I didn’t want to make that call, because I knew it wouldn’t happen that day and I couldn’t get that job done. So I went ahead and ended up doing about $300,000 of damage to myself.”
He caused an electrical-arc explosion that, he says, should have killed him. He did suffer the loss of function in one hand and other injuries. Schroeder shares his story to urge others to be safe. Potter notes contacting Dig Safely by calling 8-1-1 has cut down on accidents.
“Ten years ago, Eleven years ago, before we started these safety seminars, we saw failure to call 811 as the number one cause for damage. Statistics show that when you call 811, you reduce your chances of digging into an underground to less than one-percent.”
The toll-free 8-1-1 call should be done two business days before any project, to give utilities a chance to mark lines or shut anything off. the service of contacting utilities and getting power, gas, communications and other lines identified is also free. The order can also be made online at DigSafelyNewYork.com.
