Wake County Utility Coordinating Committee January 26, 2009

Transcription

1 Wake County Utility Coordinating Committee January 26, 2009 The Wake County Utility Coordinating Committee met at in Raleigh with Sandra Johnson and Glenn Flowers as our hosts. Donna P Zungia opened the meeting by welcoming all in attendance and leading introductions. The minutes from the October 2009 meeting was approved with no change. The Wake County UCC Breakfast was held at the Golden Corral located at 6129 Glenwood Ave in Raleigh on November 12, We had 225 people attend. Our sincere thanks to the people that gave donations as well as door prizes. Without their support we would not have a Damage Prevention Breakfast. Larry Brock wanted to know if the locators were seeing better information on Progress Energy s and their contractors locate request. Osmose Utilities Service did not change the way they call in ticket request. There is no address on the tickets. As the locators search for the pole numbers given on the locate request they are finding that there is an address at that location. The ticket gives instructions by footage from an intersection. Quite often these poles are on another street or back of the property. It is very hard to find them. The locators are using the GPS coordinates whenever possible. Some of these locates take up to an hour and half to find. Some of them cannot be found. Jeff Bartley informs us that the North Carolina One Call Center must take the information given on a ticket. They will not turn down a locate request. Jeff also said that a locate request that ask for the entire property and both sides of the street located is not good locate information. It takes more time to locate these tickets. Quite often the work will be performed in the front of the property or in the rear of the property. There was discussion about getting to know the contractors in our area and who they work for. We have built a relationship with the contactors that have a master contract with the utility companies and the private owned companies. When they need help they call the locator for, CLS and the. We work together to solve problems. There s a lot more contractors bidding for contracts due to the economy. Everyone has to cut corners. Sometimes you get what you pay for. There s contractors from other area s working in Wake County and we do not know them. They cannot be reached by phone if you have questions. An example, Ansco & Associates has the Master Contract with A T & T. Ansco & Associates can hire subcontractors to work under them. A T & T can now bid a job at $50, It us to be $150, We have contractors that work in Wake County that damage the utilities and then they are gone. The utility owner cannot find them. One other problem was discussed. A contractor called in locate request for a road in Raleigh. The information on the tickets said they were digging. They were not. They

2 were milling the road. They wanted the utilities locate in order to know what utilities are in the ground. If this company requested a survey ticket, the locators have ten days to respond. In some cases the utilities may not get located. Sometimes you call the company and refer them to engineering for help. For security reasons you don t get all the information you need from a utility owner. Brian Groome gave a report on AT & T damages for November and December, The damages were extremely low. If you damage an A T & T cable you can report it at these numbers. Dial 611 or and If you strike a cable please report it right away. Jeff Bartley gave the NC One Call Report: April 2010 will be National Dig Safety month. In 2010 the NC One Call Center will be involved in numerous Safety Awareness and Damage Prevention Seminars. White Lining---Why Me? The use of white paint or flags to outline a proposed excavation project is an important part of the planning process for several reasons: 1. It reduces or eliminates any guess work about the location of the work area. 2. It helps reduce the rainbow of colors on streets, sidewalks, curbs and parking lots. 3. The APWA Color Code references the use of white lining to identify the exact location of the proposed excavation. The use of white paint in excavation location identification is a vital part of a safe, successful excavation project. White lining should be used 100% of the time regardless of whether or not one can clearly and accurately identify the excavation location. Also, remember that white is the only color paint that is acceptable for use by excavators to mark the excavation site. The use of white paint eliminates any location guess work, eliminates gross amounts of industrial graffiti, is a part of many state laws and is becoming recognized on a national level. But, ultimately, it is the best step one can take to assist the locator in not only ensuring an accurate locate but ensuring that you and the neighborhood in which you are working remains safe as well. If everyone used white lining, the locator would get to your work site much sooner. Jeff went over the December, 2009 ticket report for North Carolina and Wake County. Year to date transmissions has a 14.4 % decrease from September, For December, 2009 Wake County had a total of 7,925 total tickets. 5,627 New ticket 2,003- Updates 77 Retransmits 113- Second Notice 105 Cancelled 276 Emergency Locates 338 Rush Tickets

3 214 Short Notice Tickets 7,097 Normal Tickets (2 full working days or more) Positive Response Information Available In excess of 70% of the tickets issued by the North Carolina One Call Center are updated in Positive Response. You can access this information by calling or by accessing the information on line as follows: Go to the NC One Call website home page at and click on Positive Response Click on Positive Response Status Enter the Ticket Number that you want to check and click on Submit Response Codes 10 = No conflict, utility is outside stated work area 20 = Marked 30 = Not Completed 40 = Could not gain access to property, locator will contact excavator 50 = Critical facility not marked, locator or utility operator must contact Excavator and must be present during excavation. 60 = Locator and excavator agreed and documented marking schedule 70 = Excavator completed work prior to due date 80 = Member s Master Contractor is responsible for locating facilities 999 =Member has not responded by the required time. Locate Company Information. The North Carolina One-Call Centers website s homepage ( now contains a link to contact information for Utility Locating Firms. There are listings both Contract Locating Companies and Private Line Locating Companies. There are times when this information can be extremely useful. Work Zone Safety Certification Due to several factors, including the state of the economy, the NC Department of Transportation has decided to delay the implementation of the Work Zone Safety Certification Program as Follows: Flagger Certification: Delayed until July 2010 Installer Certification: Delayed until January, 2011 Supervisor Certification: Delayed until July, 2011 If you are interested in entering your own tickets via the internet, go to the NC One- Call Website ( click on Remote Ticket Entry and request training. Tickets can be entered 24/7 If you have problems with mapping roads and streets, call Marshall Dean at the North Carolina One- Call Center. He does the mapping. He can be reached at Ext 508.

4 The Wake County UCC Tailgate Safety Team will come to your office or to your job site and do a Safety Meeting with your employees. There is no charge for this. If you are interested let anyone of the following people know. If it s in the morning we will bring you a Country Ham or Sausage Biscuit. Sandra Johnson Lou Teitler CLS John Meyers -Time Warner Larry Brock Progress Energy Glenn Flowers Luis Negrin Tim Reese If you have a presentation for the committee, please give me a call. Respectfully Submitted Sandra Johnson Secretary Wake County UCC 600 W Cabarrus St Raleigh, NC 27603

5 January 26, 2009 Attendance Lou Teitler Central Locating Service Keith Barry Samuel Collins Guy Smith Precision Networks Sandra Johnson Ken Reilly A T & T KR6262@ATT.com Burl Smith NC State University Burl-smith@ncsu.eou Donna Pleasant Zuniga Progress Energy Donna.plesant-zunga@pgnmail.com West Forehand Vaughan Grading & Utilities John Cooke

6 Jeff Bartley NC One Call Larry Brock Progress Energy Rob Farrell Hare Pipeline Dontez Marshall Glenn Flowers Jerry Yancez Williams Gas Pipeline/Transco Cardinal Pipeline Company Don Proctor Mazetta Wynn Terri Williams Tony Wilson Otis Tucker Chuck Williams Raleigh, NC

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