As an underground utility contractor for more than 62 years we’ve seen a lot of changes and trends. One trend that seems to be gaining traction is the recognition by several of our clients that their critical facilities require more care than just the average locating company is able to deliver. In response to this need, six years ago we developed a division within our construction firm to cater to these specific needs for several key clients. We built this division, Gabe’s Technical Services, around a partnership of clients that all had the same goals and objectives. The main objectives of this group of clients were as follows:

• They wanted protection of their critical facilities not just locating services.
• They wanted physical presence on the job site during construction activities that may require intervention in order to protect their facilities.
• They wanted preventative surveillance of their routes in order to monitor undocumented or non-permitted work that may jeopardize their facilities.
• They wanted personnel with a strong construction background and understanding of the work activities around their facilities in order to maximize the protection buffer zones.
• They wanted a cost competitive solution with a long-standing contract that minimized personnel turnover in order to guarantee them a premium level of service at a competitive cost.
• They wanted a “one stop shop” to deal with the engineering evaluation, physical on site protection and if required re-location of their facilities.

We began this venture with a large fiber optic long distance company that had approximately 900 miles of plant covering six states in the upper Midwest that needed to be protected. Since then we have grown this to more than 3,500 miles of underground facility protection. We knew going into the original project that training, retention and continued education of our employees would be keys to our success. We crafted a contract between both parties that resulted in risk sharing and cost savings sharing that rewarded all parties for efficiencies and minimizing damage. Our motto quickly became “No Cuts for No Reason”. The notion of not being cut took a while to sink in with our employees and our clients. This end of the business has always a “CYA” and numbers game to our clients and the other locating firms. The formula of X number of tickets caused Y number of cuts at a cost of Z. Many companies began managing to the “Z” number. Our approach was that “Z” would stand for ZERO. We felt it was obtainable if we could convince our clients to look at plant protection in a preventative nature instead of a reactionary, satisfy the law at the lowest cost approach. Not everyone bought in to this and we are working on them every day to move from the “dark side,” but several did and it has paid them great rewards in customer service and reliability of their facility networks. I have to admit that ZERO was an overly aggressive objective but we have had periods of over 30 months during our last six years of service where we did not have a single client cut for any reason.

Our mind set had to change in order to morph from one of accurately locating the facility and damned be the contractor that hit us because we were right on with our marks, to who cares who’s right if our client is cut!! Their customers are without service, and the end customer doesn’t care if the client was painted correctly if they can’t use their data network or run their plant because they are without electricity or gas.

It brings little comfort to the CIO at a company if his data network is down, but we were painted and flagged correctly and the contractor that hit us will have to pay to repair the cut. “And by the way you’ll be down for the next eight hours.” Not the news any of our clients want to deliver to their customers.

So we had to shift the paradigm. We had to train our technicians to be Protection Technicians not locating technicians. We had to look a the work process to insure we were satisfying the one call laws while at the same time making sure we went above and beyond this to eliminate damages to our client’s facilities. And we had to do this in a manner that was cost competitive in the market place while showing long term overall savings to our clients. I’m proud to say that those who have accepted our approach have been rewarded and so have we. We have built several long-standing relationships with clients that have allowed us to demonstrate the long-term savings of this approach. We’ve had some whose short sited quarterly cost objectives have required them to change to a lowest cost provider solution for their business model and we make our money fixing them when they are cut. Initially we had focused on just the telecommunications networks with this approach, but we are now offering these same services on critical gas and electric facilities as well as on private fiber networks.

Key areas that have helped us succeed are the relationship and support we receive from our construction and engineering divisions. We have behind us experts in engineering and construction who are able to aid our field technicians in the evaluation of a work site and the impact the work being performed on site will have on our client’s facilities. We also have an excellent knowledge of how locators can help construction firms succeed in the field from our view as a contractor and we try to instill these methods in our technicians’ daily work habits.

Our internal goal is to get the contractor beyond our client’s facilities as quickly as possible. Our philosophy is that the longer they are digging around us the greater the chance for damage. Because of this we look for the most productive, risk adverse approach to helping the contractor achieve their objective. This is productive for them and builds a team approach on the work site where we all understand each other’s objectives. We are not adversaries, but partners in working towards the same goals of a damage free, productive work site.

Below are a few examples of the knowledge and thought process that is necessary on work sites to insure damage-free projects. As a contractor with over 62 years of experience we have an excellent knowledge base of Construction Methods and what that means to the surrounding utilities. We have tried to push this knowledge out to our Protection Technicians by involving them in our own construction activities while encouraging them to observe as much work at and around their work sites of various activities as a daily activity.

1. When Directional Drilling in a 24” Water Main, it will require at least two feet of separation because of the reamer size. We have educated them to know that a reamer is generally one and a half times the size of the product being pulled back. One has to know that the depth measurement of the directional drillers locating device is at the center of the hole and that the reamer size has to be divided by two and added to the depth measurement in order to estimate how close the new product will be installed. What tolerance is the client able to live with? Is a reamer passing within 6” of a 12” High Pressure gas main tolerable vs. a 300 pair copper cable or CATV? Knowing what is required to place the product is as important as knowing how to locate the facility. Also knowing the ground conditions can help prevent damage. In this case if the ground was rocky where a 2’ stone could be driven into the main by the reamer, 2’ of clearance may still not be comfortable. This knowledge and protection approach versus just locating the facility is the Core of Damage Prevention.
2. Knowing how big the excavation will have to be to place a new 24” Storm Sewer at 8’ depth. Locating a critical fiber cable in an existing conduit package that is 6’ from the facility may appear to be “all clear” of damage to an inexperienced locator. However realizing that the excavation will be 16’ across in type “C” Soil and that the entire conduit package is at risk and will need to be supported is the key to damage prevention in this scenario.
3. Safety on site is also an advantage for us. Our most precious outside plant facility is our employee and the general public. How many times have we seen a locator jump in an excavation in an attempt to assist the digging contractor when we know it’s not yet a safe hole. This reaction of cooperation is dangerous unless the person is a competent person trained and can evaluate the excavation for safety. All of our technicians are competent person trained. Allowing them to protect themselves and sometimes even the excavator’s personnel. Evaluation of the soils and the excavation also allows for them to judge if our client’s plant may be in jeopardy if the excavation proceeds.
4. Preventative protection services such as consulting engineering are also provided. These skills allow us to evaluate other utility and road construction well in advance of the actual one call ticket and work beginning. Through cooperation with our clients and utility owners many times a proposed utility line or change in road elevation can be accommodated in the planning stage avoiding conflict in the field. Again knowledge of construction methods to be used allows for accurate evaluation of the threat to our client’s plant. In some events it is more economical for our clients to re-locate ahead of the excavation in lieu of protecting in place.

Understanding how the utilities we protect are built allows us a unique andinsightful understanding of the two dimensional “as built” record that we all depend on. Our ability to compare the records with our knowledge of construction allows us to have a higher level of understanding when reading an electronic instrument such as a locator. Sometimes things just don’t add up. Like a sudden change in direction of signal where our as built records indicate a directional bore. We know that boring machines don’t move in 22- or 45-degree angles. It could be that the signal has jumped onto another utility or abandoned pipe. It could be that the client’s records are incorrect.

Knowing what activity is going to place our marks in jeopardy and the frequency on which we need to refresh or visit the job site we feel is crucial in preventing damage. We understand that different installation methods will affect the work site differently. A bulldozer scraping the first 2’ of topsoil at a construction site can dramatically change the way it looks in a couple of hours. Will we need to come back at the end of the day before they start the excavation that could impact us? A track hoe sitting in one location and digging to a depth of 25’ may change the landscape as our plant is exposed and drops out of site of the operator’s view as the hole gets deeper. Do we need to run a piece of warning tape across the top of the hole so he has an idea of our approximate location in relationship to the equipment he’s using?

Keys to making the right judgment in all of the above situations are the knowledge that our technicians have. While we invest heavily in the latest technology we also feel that we have to continue to invest in our technicians and their education and training. We make a concerted effort to involve them in construction activities that give them a greater understanding of the world they work in every day. We encourage them to observe other construction work sites and equipment to ensure an understanding of how it affects their client’s facilities when it shows up on their job.   The best way to protect this knowledge is to retain the employee. We have had great success in doing this through competitive pay and benefits, a rewarding career with variety and responsibility for our technicians along with unwavering standards and expectations of excellence. The fact is that this additional knowledge leads our technicians to ask “Why” when a locating instrument and paint don’t look right rather than just following the signal and putting paint and flags in the ground. Our emphasis is on protecting not locating which requires us to spend more time than the normal “paint and go” approach.

Our clients are a unique group that realizes the value we provide in the preventative maintenance approach to protecting their plant and facilities. They value the level of service we try each day to deliver in a world that is becoming more and more demanding while their facilities are increasingly encroached with wider roads and right of ways that become more encumbered. They know that we are not perfect but that every day we strive for perfection in an environment that has constantly changes roles and conditions. They also value the relationship that we have been able to build with local municipalities, contractors and engineering firms in an effort to better protect their facilities. It’s not easy for any of us and the risk/ reward relationship in this line of business changes each year as insurance, health care and fuel cost increase, while our client’s competitive environment looks to us to help them decrease their cost of maintenance and plant protection. We can only achieve these results through partnership and risk sharing where we all succeed through a continued reassessment of risk tolerance and cost containment to the best of all parties ability while providing the highest level of service we can to protect our client’s facilities and the general public.

If you would like to learn more about our Critical Facilities Protection Services please feel free to call me at (920) 459-2600 Ext. 311. Or via e-mail at smcgee@gabes.com.

Biography : Scott McGee is a Director with Gabe’s Construction and Technical Services Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Gabe’s is an industry leader in Plant Protection, Directional Drilling and Underground Utility Construction. They are an active participant in damage prevention as an underground utility contractor and plant protection provider. Before Joining Gabe’s Scott was an employee of 17 years with Ameritech and served various roles in Engineering, Construction, Maintenance and Work Process Development. He has been at Gabe’s Construction serving in the roles of Project Manager, Marketing and Director for more than eight years