Cities urged to update contact information at “Call Before You Dig” call centers
Cities with outdated information could end up out of compliance with requirements in new legislation.
Attention all cities that own or maintain underground facilities. As of January 1, 2021, any entity with underground facilities are required to respond to “call before you dig” excavation requests through one of two California call centers, DigAlert (Southern California) and USA North (Northern California), that manage communication between excavators and utility operators.
The call centers have been in operation for years with the goal of preventing potentially deadly digging accidents by providing utility operators notification of any excavation planned near their underground facilities. All “excavators” — anyone digging at a job site — are required to notify the appropriate call center before work begins. “Operators” or those who own or maintain buried infrastructure, are required to mark the location of any subsurface utilities at the worksite or supply a map of the utilities.
What’s new is that under AB 1166 (Levine, 2019), it is now mandatory for operators, which include public works departments, to enter their response to the excavator’s request electronically through the call center unless an extension is granted by the California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board for "good cause." Members granted an extension will have until December 31, 2021 to implement an “Electronic Positive Response.”
Electronic Positive Response improves safety by providing excavators with an online location to view the responses of facility owners—including requests to contact the facility owner—before arriving onsite.
According to the California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board, about half of all cities, special districts, or counties have inaccurate contact information registered with the call centers, leading to a lack of compliance by cities to submit their electronic positive response in a timely fashion.
The call centers indicate that many of their contacts are utility billing departments that are disconnected from operational functions. Preferred contacts include heads of public works, city managers, and assistant city managers.
To prevent accidents and ensure cities are in compliance with the new legislation, cities should contact their respective call center DigAlert (Southern California) or USA North (Northern California), and confirm their updated contact information.