VHS | LOCATING WITH 3D VISUALIZATION

This week we’re haring a video from our friends at Screening Eagle.”Before any digging or drilling takes place, detecting and mapping buried utilities like pipes and cables is crucial. See how the team at Site Vision Surveys inspects the subsurface to detect underground utilities and visualizes them in 3D – in real-time using the GS8000 subsurface mapping system with an …

DETECTIVE WORK IN DAMAGE PREVENTION

I was speaking to the owner of a small locate firm recently and he told me that he almost exclusively hires former police detectives. Hopefully I’m not unveiling his big secret to the world but he seemed pretty enthusiastic about how detail and goal oriented they could be. In the world of damage prevention and utility locating, the unexpected connection …

LOCATOR GEAR GUIDE

Christmas is nearly upon us, and in the spirit of giving, I’ve curated a comprehensive list of the most cherished and effective equipment and apparel beloved by locators in their day-to-day work. This list is the result of talking to people in the industry who test their apparel everyday in the field. FOOTWEAR Irish Setter boasts an extensive collection of robust, …

CGA TELECOM WHITE PAPER REVIEW

Who’s read the new Common Ground Alliance Telecom White Paper?Here’s a quick 4 point rundown from my perspective:1. The paper highlights a prevailing perception within the telecom sector that damages to buried infrastructure are deemed inevitable and consequently accepted as part of the business model. This acceptance seems rooted in the industry’s focus on recovering repair costs rather than proactively …

VHS | THE TOWN THAT EXPLODED

This is a little bit of an unusual one for us. The video revolves around a small town in Kansas with a big problem. “An entire town was terrified when the ground began exploding all around them. No one knew when or where the next explosion would occur.”Underground utilities can bring lots of problems if they’re not mapped and monitored …

REBRANDING DAMAGE PREVENTION

The video below by Jason Camissa on Tesla’s Cybertruck sparked a wave of imaginative possibilities for me. Elon Musk’s pursuit of a futuristic design, prompted by his son’s question, “why doesn’t the future look like the future?” –  led to groundbreaking innovations like the stainless steel exoskeleton and cutting-edge technologies such as the 48-volt system and steer-by-wire technology. But rather …

VHS | STORY OF THE UTILITY LOCATOR

What does a Utility Locator do? How do they protect our underground utilities? Heavy Metal Learning and Planet Underground collaborated on this video to help answer those questions.In their own words; “Heavy Metal Learning is excited to partner with Planet Underground TV to share the underground construction stories of the utility locator. This episode features three veteran utility locators working …

ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

I shared a video this week with some pretty startling footage, and judging by the comments it’s a relatively common occurrence. In the video a homeowner is accosting a locator because she seems to believe he’s trespassing or is a threat. This mostly boils down to the ignorance of the general public about locating and the 811 industry as a …

VHS | BEFOREUDIG LOCATOR PERSPECTIVE

beforeUdig is the New Zealand equivalent of our 811 centers and they’ve produced this video with a locator’s perspective. It’s beneficial to learn from other places what works and what doesn’t. In their own words; “Our latest Front Runners episode is here, featuring the Locator’s Perspective while using beforeUdig services. Join the Locate Services team, as they guide us, through …

MEASURING SUCCESS IN DAMAGE PREVENTION

Excavation projects, vital for development and infrastructure, often encounter a lurking menace beneath the surface: ‘Ghost’ Utilities. These are the elusive, forgotten, or abandoned facilities that pose a substantial threat to safety and efficiency during excavation processes. The 2022 DIRT Report recorded 477 unique damages due to abandoned facilities, which isn’t a lot in view of all the other damages, …