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How to Deal with a Damage

As damage prevention stakeholders, we are all focused on keeping people and property safe. And while everyone’s goal is zero damages, the reality is that damages do occur.

In the past five years in the United States and Canada, damages to buried utilities have increased or stayed relatively steady, according to the Common Ground Alliance, with 475,770 damage events reported via the CGA’s Damage Information Reporting Tool in 2020.

Eric Kolcinski, a damage prevention coordinator with CenterPoint Energy and the president of the Metropolitan Utility Coordinating Committee, points out that in Minnesota, overall damage numbers appear to be staying “roughly the same, as expressed in a ratio of damages per 1,000 tickets.” However, he adds, “there are localized fluctuations in certain types of damaging parties and damage root causes—i.e., an increase in homeowner damages during summer 2020 with people working remotely during COVID-19.”

In addition to investigating damages, Kolcinski works closely with excavators to help troubleshoot and educate in order to reduce them. Before he joined CenterPoint in 2016, he worked in line locator, lead tech and supervisor/managerial positions, becoming involved in all aspects of line locating, interacting with GSOC and Minnesota dig law, training locators and working with excavators and utility operators.

“Communication is the biggest tool in damage prevention,” Kolcinski says. “I see my day-to-day job as helping damage prevention stakeholders be able to clearly communicate with each other to avoid damaging buried facilities.” Here, he explains what happens when a damage does occur in Minnesota.

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2021 Ticket Summary and What’s Ahead in 2022

Each year, Gopher State One Call compiles ticket submission and transmission volume data. This information is shared to help make correlations and gain insights about the state of Minnesota’s damage prevention efforts.

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Presidents’ Day Closure: February 21, 2022

2022 GSOC HolidayBanner Presidents Day

Gopher State One Call will be closed Monday, February 21 in observance of Presidents’ Day.

Emergency calls are exempt from business hours and are always accepted, even on holidays.

All non-emergency locate requests can be submitted online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but are processed during business hours. Please keep in mind that any official holiday will not count toward your standard 48-hour notice when filing locate requests. Please plan accordingly.

Reminder: GSOC’s regular late fall/winter business hours for all ticket types are Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 5 PM.

White Lining Your Excavation Site

One of the most important damage prevention practices occurs well before an excavation or utility locate. It happens even before a call to Gopher State One Call is made.

Pre-marking, also commonly known as white lining or white marking, is one of the five required “precautions to avoid damage” included in Minnesota’s dig law. Per State Statute Chapter 216D, using white markings for proposed excavations is required “except when it can be shown that it is not practical.”

Even though it is required by law, white lining is often overlooked by professional and homeowner excavators alike. But in addition to other pre-locate practices such as submitting precise marking instructions, it is an effective way for excavators to convey their exact intended excavation area. That communication in turn helps avoid confusion, delays and errors and allows locators to more quickly identify the area to locate.

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10/16/2024 - 10/16/2024

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10/23/2024 - 10/23/2024

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