Reminder from Utility Safety Partners – April is Safe Digging Awareness Month
ALBERTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 1 marks the official start of DigSafe Month. In Alberta we can often still be dealing with digging out from snow and not quite shifting our attention to ground disturbances but many contractors and even homeowners are making those plans and one of the first steps should be to ClickBeforeYouDig.
- In 2022 there were over 450,000 locate requests through Utility Safety Partners – almost 90% of those originating online
- Those locate requests generated over 1.5 million notifications to our 850+ members of ground disturbances in the vicinity of their buried energy and utility assets
- There were over 3,700 reported damages to buried utilities in the province caused by uncontrolled excavations –digging without knowing what’s below
- Damage to buried utilities can result in loss of product, environmental contamination, evacuation, loss of business and services, severe injuries and fatalities
- Damages to buried utilities result in over $350 Million in societal costs to Albertans every year
The President of Utility Safety Partners, Mike Sullivan, would love the opportunity to be interviewed to help remind Albertans of the importance of locate requests and to highlight our Ambassador Program in Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie and central Alberta.
Submitting a locate request to Utility Safety Partners through our website (https://utilitysafety.ca/submit-a-locate-request), five working days in advance of any project is the safest way to dig.
This news story is of interest to anyone in your audience who might be:
- Building a deck
- Installing or removing fence posts
- Planning to do some gardening that requires digging
- Doing light industrial work
- Contractors
- Developers
- Installing or changing Utilities (yes they forget sometimes there are other Utilities)
Interviews are available with Mike in French or English.
Please contact Doug Downs 403-835-6784 or send an email to info@utilitysafety.ca
Contacts
Doug Downs
403-835-6784
