WHAT’S AT STAKE

The infrastructure is underground. The consequences aren’t.

Water, gas, electricity and telecommunications networks run beneath the places people live, work and travel every day.

Most of the time, they’re out of sight.

But when an underground asset is struck during excavation, the impact can quickly become very visible.

A damaged water main can interrupt supply. A severed telecommunications cable can disconnect homes and businesses.

Damage to electricity or gas infrastructure can create serious safety risks for the people working nearby and the wider community.

Then there are the consequences for your organization.

Emergency response. Repairs. Service restoration. Project delays. Investigations. Reporting. Questions from customers, contractors, regulators or leadership.

And inevitably, your team needs to understand what happened.

Did we know the work was happening?

Did we know our assets were there?

Did the people excavating have the information they needed?

Was there an opportunity to intervene before ground was broken? Because once an asset has been struck, the focus is on managing the consequences.

The real opportunity to protect it came earlier.

THE PRESSURE

You know the work is coming.
The challenge is knowing where to focus.

Before You Dig and 811 services give asset owners something incredibly valuable: advance notice that someone intends to excavate near their infrastructure.

But that creates another challenge.

Depending on the size of your network, your team may be receiving hundreds or thousands of Before You Dig or 811 inquiries about planned excavation.

Some may pose little risk to your assets. Some can be handled with a standard response. Others need plans or specific instructions. Some need somebody to look more closely. And a small number may involve work where the consequences of getting the response wrong are much greater.

If people have to manually review every inquiry to work out which is which, volume becomes part of the problem.

Your experienced team can spend valuable time processing routine requests while the work that genuinely needs their knowledge and attention sits amongst everything else.

Adding more people to process more tickets isn’t necessarily the answer.
The challenge is recognising the difference between an inquiry that can keep moving and one that needs you to stop and pay attention.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Every inquiry is a chance to act before excavation begins

A Before You Dig or 811 inquiry gives you a window of opportunity.

Someone has told you where they intend to work, what they’re planning to do and when they’re planning to do it.

Now you can put that information to work.

You can check the proposed excavation against your GIS and asset data.

You can understand what infrastructure may be affected.

You can assess the potential risk.

If it’s straightforward, you can get the appropriate information back to the contractor quickly.

If they need plans or instructions, you can provide them.

If the work needs closer attention, you can bring the right person into the conversation.

If the risk is higher, you can escalate it.

And if greater certainty is needed before excavation starts, you can send someone into the field to locate the asset.

The goal is to make sure the response matches the risk, so routine work keeps moving, higher-risk work gets attention, your team spends its time where its expertise matters and the person about to excavate gets useful information while there’s still time to act on it.

The right response. At the right time. With the right information.

That’s how an excavation inquiry becomes an opportunity to protect the asset before ground is broken.

A BETTER WAY

Focus your people where they can make the biggest difference

Protecting more assets doesn’t have to mean asking your team to manually do more.

A better process uses the information you already have to automate repeatable decisions, while keeping people involved where their judgement, communication or field expertise is needed.

SCREEN

Understand what’s at risk

Check proposed work against GIS and asset information to identify affected infrastructure and assess potential risk.

RESPOND

Keep appropriate responses moving

Use established business rules to provide plans, schedule a locate, share information or instructions without unnecessary manual intervention.

ESCALATE

Focus attention where it’s needed

Route higher-risk or more complex inquiries to the people who need to review, communicate or take further action.

LOCATE

Take protection into the field

When additional verification is required, get locate work to the right field team and keep the process moving.

THE OUTCOME

Know what’s happening.
Know what needs attention.
Know what happens next.

No system can remove every risk around underground infrastructure.

But you can create a more controlled way to manage the work happening around your assets.

Routine inquiries keep moving. Higher-risk work gets identified earlier.

Contractors receive useful information while there’s still time to act on it. Field teams are brought in when they’re needed.

And your experienced people can spend less time processing every ticket and more time on the situations where their attention can make a difference.

That’s the shift from reacting to inquiries to getting ahead of excavation risk.

HOW PELICANCORP HELPS

Connect the decisions that happen before excavation

Protecting underground assets isn’t one action.

It depends on information moving between the people planning excavation, Before You Dig or 811 services, asset owners, response teams, locators and the people doing the work.

PelicanCorp has more than 40 years of experience working with utilities, One Call and Before You Dig operations and local authorities. That industry knowledge shapes technology designed to improve information exchange and the processes that help protect underground infrastructure.

For utilities and asset owners, PelicanCorp technology can help turn an incoming excavation inquiry into a controlled path towards the appropriate response.

Explore the PelicanCorp Platform
THE TECHNOLOGY

Put the right response in motion

Different inquiries need different actions. PelicanCorp products support the screening, response and field workflows that help you manage them.

ScreenAccess

Understand which tickets need attention

Automatically screen One Call inquiries against GIS and asset information, assess risk and trigger the appropriate response, communication or escalation.

Explore ScreenAccess

LocateAccess

Manage work that needs a field locate

Schedule, dispatch and track locate requests, giving office and field teams visibility from assignment through to completion.

Explore LocateAccess
PROVEN IN PRACTICE

Spend less time reviewing every ticket manually

Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority

Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority uses ScreenAccess to automate the screening of CBYD 811 tickets.

The automated process has significantly reduced the time and resources needed to review, respond to and mark out tickets. Contractors receive an automated response within minutes, indicating the presence of underground facilities and outlining the actions required by GNHWPCA.

Watch the customer story

COMMON QUESTIONS

Protecting underground assets before excavation

How can utilities reduce the risk of damage to underground assets?

Start before excavation. Understanding where work is planned, which assets may be affected and what action is appropriate gives utilities an opportunity to provide information, communicate with contractors, escalate risk or arrange a locate before ground is broken.

Not necessarily. Screening and response automation can handle repeatable decisions, allowing routine inquiries to keep moving while higher-risk or more complex work is escalated for human attention.

GIS data helps determine how proposed excavation relates to your network. Combined with inquiry details, asset information and business rules, it can support screening, risk assessment and response decisions.

The inquiry can move into a field locate workflow. LocateAccess helps teams organize, schedule, dispatch and track locate work so office and field teams maintain visibility through to completion.

PelicanCorp provides technology for different stages of the response process. ScreenAccess supports automated screening and risk assessment, TicketAccess automates appropriate plan responses, and LocateAccess helps manage work that requires a field locate.

THE NEXT STEP

Get ahead of the work happening near your assets

If increasing excavation activity, manual ticket review or inconsistent response processes are making it harder to focus on risk, let’s look at where the pressure sits.

Our team can help you explore how screening, response automation and locate workflows could support a more controlled approach to protecting your underground infrastructure.

Talk to our team
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