Safety Standards Development

Underground Safety Board

Standard: Planning and Design

Workshops

June 2023: Workshop “Planning and Design Ticket Development; Pennsylvania 811 Coordinate PA Demo Workshop”

“Planning and Design Ticket Development; Pennsylvania 811 Coordinate PA Demo Workshop”

Summary Regarding the June 2023 Workshop (from July 2023 Staff Report): At its April meeting, the Board discussed planning and design survey results and requested a demonstration from Pennsylvania 811. In June, the Planning and Design Committee facilitated a workshop to gain insight on how one of the leading states handles design tickets and to hear from stakeholders on how they would structure a design ticket. Staff recommends the Board direct staff and the committee to develop the design request process and conduct outreach to designers, operators, and regional notification centers for feedback regarding the process. In addition, Board should direct staff and the committee to begin identifying which aspects of the design request process may be suitable for legislation, regulations, and/or safety standards.

February 2022: Workshop

Summary Regarding the February 2022 Workshop (from May 2022 Staff Report): Board Member Johns led a workshop in February 2022 to gather information on planning tickets. The Board released surveys for both operators and designers to gather information on what utility information designers need in the early design phase of building projects and the challenges for designers and operators in the design process as it pertains to 811 excavation. Workshop and survey discussion participation was limited. Staff recommends the Board continue to conduct outreach to stakeholders to generate more responses and to inform potential development of a planning ticket.

Reports

November 2023: Special Report, “Special Report on Deploying Technology to Hasten the Pace of California Infrastructure Development”

“Special Report on Deploying Technology to Hasten the Pace of California Infrastructure Development”

From the Planning and Design Committee: We developed this special report following a review of recent initiatives from Governor Newsom to cut infrastructure deployment timelines, save California businesses and governments hundreds of millions of dollars, and effectively use federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act in the state. This brief document discusses how the Board’s planning and design efforts can support those efforts. We hope that it may serve as a resource to staff in furthering our recommendation to the Governor and Legislature to provide us with the authority to require utility operators to participate in a planning and design ticket process.

November 2023: Annual Report to Governor and Legislature

“2022 Annual Report to Governor and Legislature”

Recommendations:

1. The Board recommends that utility operators be required to participate in the Planning and Design Ticket.

2. The Board recommends that it be authorized to place reasonable advanced notification and utility coordination requirements on excavators planning to make significant excavation notifications.

Executive Summary: This report highlights actions the Underground Safety Board took in 2022 to address areas for improvement in the State’s “call before you dig” system. The report also forwards the Board’s recommendations to the Governor and Legislature for potential further legislative action.

The Board’s investigations and standards development process revealed several impediments to achieving a goal where all California excavators and utility personnel have the knowledge and tools to perform their work safely and effectively. Subcontractors lack guidance to tell them where to expose buried lines with hand tools to identify their locations (“potholing”) and thus avoid hitting the lines with construction equipment. The general contractors that hire them are not required to consider existing utilities when planning their work. These two factors led to a large natural gas pipeline fire in San Francisco in 2019.

The Board stands ready to work with the Governor and the Legislature to improve the safety of underground facilities, and more importantly, to improve the safety of excavators and operators alike, for the benefit of all Californians.

July 2023: Staff Report, “Planning and Design Ticket Development Update”

“Planning and Design Ticket Development Update”

Summary: At its April meeting, the Board discussed planning and design survey results and requested a demonstration from Pennsylvania 811. In June, the Planning and Design Committee facilitated a workshop to gain insight on how one of the leading states handles design tickets and to hear from stakeholders on how they would structure a design ticket. Staff recommends the Board direct staff and the committee to develop the design request process and conduct outreach to designers, operators, and regional notification centers for feedback regarding the process. In addition, Board should direct staff and the committee to begin identifying which aspects of the design request process may be suitable for legislation, regulations, and/or safety standards.

April 2023: Staff Report, “Planning and Design Ticket Development Update”

“Planning and Design Ticket Development Update”

Summary: At the September 2022 Board meeting, members discussed continuing to research and clearly define “design,” the components of the design process, and what types of information designers need at different stages of the design process. In March, the Planning and Design committee and staff released survey for both operators and designers to gather information on the planning and design process. The designer responses found that buried facility information is needed early in the design process to complete design deliverables. Operator responses to the survey were limited. Staff recommends the Board to conduct outreach to other state agencies (such as Caltrans) and local governments to understand their design process and utility coordination needs. Staff recommends the Board direct staff to develop the design ticket process and conduct outreach to designers, operators, and Regional Notification Centers for feedback regarding the process.

September 2022: Staff Report, "Planning Ticket and Development Update"

“Planning Ticket Development Update”

Summary: Following discussions on ticket volatility and the information quality excavators rely upon in potholing, the Board began to explore the possibility of creating a ticket for planning and design. Staff issued surveys for both operators and designers to gather information on what utility information designers need in the design phase of projects and the challenges designers and operators face in the design process. Responses generated from the surveys found that designers would like to see a standardized process for requesting utility information and receive detailed maps from operators. Other states have both design and “large/complex” ticket types, which may inform a California solution. Staff recommends that the Board Planning and Design Committee better define “design” and determine that information a designer needs at its various stages.

July 2022: Staff Report, “Planning Ticket – Survey II and Outreach”

“Planning Ticket – Survey II and Outreach”

Summary: Board Member Johns and staff led a workshop in February of this year to gather information from operators and project planners and designers on the current process for obtaining facility information during project planning phases. Following the workshop, Board staff released surveys for both operators and designers to gather information on what underground facility information they would be able to provide and they would like to receive in the planning phase of building projects, the challenges or obstacles project planners and designers currently face in obtaining this information, and the corresponding challenges or obstacles operators currently face in providing detailed information to project planners and designers. Workshop and survey discussion participation was limited. To obtain the necessary information from those who would be affected by a planning ticket, staff has worked with the planning committee and created revised, online, surveys which it expects to release on July 7 and close on July 21. In anticipation of release of these surveys, staff has conducted outreach to key stakeholder groups to increase their awareness of and seek their engagement in the surveys. Staff recommends that the Board continue to conduct outreach to stakeholders to generate more responses and to inform potential development of a planning ticket through new surveys and an outreach plan to reach more designers and operators.

November 2021: Staff Report, “Planning and Design Ticket – Comparing and Contrasting California with Colorado”

“Planning and Design Ticket – Comparing and Contrasting California with Colorado”

Summary: Staff analyzed the planning ticket process, including the use of Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), in Colorado and compared it with that currently used in California. Staff recommends that the Board discuss and consider whether aspects of the Colorado planning ticket process may be worth adopting in California.

Investigations

September 2023: Investigation, “LADWP No EPR on Ticket Suspected for Design Purposes”

“LADWP No EPR on Ticket Suspected for Design Purposes”

Executive Summary: On December 13, 2022, the Southern California Gas Company (SCG) submitted a complaint that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power – Water (LADWP) had refused to field mark in response to locate requests which related to installation of a gas main. That complaint led Board staff to investigate six instances in which LADWP refused to mark. This report documents one of those six investigations. In the instance documented in this report, the LADWP stated in its electronic positive response that the excavator was not going to dig within 14 days (preplanning). In written statements, 1 001 LADWP explained that its decision not to field mark was based on DigAlert direction and that SCG was improperly using tickets for engineering work. After creating the initial ticket, DigAlert created a revised ticket to include a comment from SCG about the refusal to mark, and 15 days after the legal start date, LADWP provided an electronic positive response indicating that its subsurface installations were not in conflict with the excavation. Further, four operators did not provide electronic positive responses to the locate request from DigAlert.

January 2022: Investigation, “Geary Street Natural Gas Explosion and Fire”

“Geary Street Natural Gas Explosion and Fire”

Executive Summary: On February 6, 2019, Kilford Engineering, Inc. (Kilford), working through contractors for Verizon Sourcing, LLC., was digging a trench at the intersection of Geary Blvd. and Parker Ave. in San Francisco to install fiber optic cable. At 1:07 pm Kilford employees struck a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) natural gas distribution branch connection, causing a natural gas release. The natural gas ignited, causing a fire that extended above the height of a nearby building. The fire engulfed an adjacent restaurant and would spread to nearby buildings. Everyone was able to evacuate, and there were no injuries.

Standard: Best Practices in Facility Exposure (Potholing)

August 2022: Workshop on Potholing and Facility Location

Background Research

Contact Us

Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety
715 P Street, 20th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 902-6000

Gavin Newsom, Governor
State of California

Wade Crowfoot, Secretary
California Natural Resources Agency

Caroline Thomas Jacobs, Director

Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (Energy Safety)