DIRT Report

Executive Summary

CGA Index Indicates Damages Declined in 2023

• The CGA Index, developed in partnership with Hanover Research, employs a methodology that models annual damages and tracks progress toward the goal of reducing underground utility damages by 50% over five years.
• For 2023, the Index score of 94 represents a six-point decline from the 2022 baseline of 100, indicating progress but underscoring the significant effort still required to reach the target score of 50.

Spotlight on 2023 Data

• The 2023 data reveals consistent trends with 2022, particularly in facilities damaged and the type of work causing damages. Telecommunications facilities accounted for nearly half of reported damages, followed by natural gas at about 40%.
• By separating the previously combined "energy” work type into distinct natural gas and electric categories, water/sewer work emerged as the top contributor to damages, followed by telecom and construction/development.
• These persistent trends are significant given the expected surge in excavation activities driven by federal infrastructure investments, including $85.4 billion for broadband expansion and $55 billion for water infrastructure improvements.
• Excavation/construction stakeholders remained the top source of damage reports for the second consecutive year.

Root Cause Analysis Underscores Persistent Challenges

• The persistent dominance of the top six root causes, accounting for nearly 76% of damages and spanning all three major root cause groups (No Locate Request, Excavation Practices, and Locating Practices), indicates deeply entrenched issues across the damage prevention process.
• Slight fluctuations in root cause groups from 2021-2023 can be attributed to expanded reporting from the excavator stakeholder group, driven by the growth of the Damage Prevention Institute (DPI).
• Improving the quality of data submitted to DIRT – particularly refining damage root causes – is necessary to driving progress.

Late Locates: An Ongoing Challenge

• Analysis of 2023 data from 12 state 811 centers corroborated an important finding from the 2022 DIRT Report: Excavators face significant unpredictability in beginning work due to late or missing locates. Across the states examined, locates (or work site clearance) were delivered on-time for only 30-70% of tickets, with most hovering around 50%.
• Two significant factors complicate analysis of late locates: the absence of a standardized metric for evaluation and the diverse array of data architectures employed across 811 centers. These inconsistencies hinder comprehensive and comparative assessments of locating timeliness across regions.
• To address these challenges, several innovative approaches have been implemented at the state level:
  • Georgia 811's "excavation readiness" metric, which could serve as a guide for standardized locating evaluation across 811 centers.
  • New Mexico's unique enforcement mechanism, including "warning locate requests" and financial protections for excavators.
  • Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities' collaborative approach to enforcing locating timeliness through targeted improvement plans.
  • Minnesota's pilot program providing GPS-enabled utility locating devices to improve facility mapping and locating efficiency.
  • North Carolina's data-driven analysis of ticket screening effects and collaborative stakeholder coordination for broadband deployments.

Enhancing Data Quality and Collaboration

• The impact of "unknown" categories in DIRT data analysis is significant and may be masking important trends – particularly around key data points like root cause and work performed, where a lack of clear or accurate information hamstrings our ability to focus on areas that would result in meaningful damage reductions.
• North Carolina 811's success story demonstrates how focused improvement efforts can enhance Data Quality Index (DQI) scores and reduce unknown root causes.
• CGA’s Data Reporting and Evaluation Committee is leading several initiatives to improve data quality and consistency:
  • Development of a root cause analysis flow chart to guide users in selecting more specific root causes and reduce reliance on catch-all categories.
  • Collaboration with CGA’s One Call Systems International (OCSI) Committee to create a comprehensive list of common work types from 811 tickets, aiming to standardize the mapping of work type classifications.
  • Classification and clarification of various state damage reporting requirements and their relationship to DIRT reporting.

DPI's Role in Developing Next- Generation Metrics and Rapid Data Analysis

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