Stakeholders at Underground Safety Board workshop urge better training, coordination to cut utility-dig incidents

At a workshop convened by the California Underground Safety Board in Sacramento, contractors, utilities and locate companies outlined gaps in excavation safety that they say lead to routine underground utility damage and near misses.

The discussion centered on what participants called the chief causes of damage—failure to contact 811, inaccurate or incomplete marks, locator staffing shortages and confusion around abandoned or unclaimed lines—and on ways state and industry stakeholders can coordinate training and outreach to reduce risk.

The issue matters because excavation strikes can cause service outages, lengthy project delays and safety risks. Todd Weinstein, representing the Southern California Contractors Association, said “the number 1 issue is failure to contact 811,” and several speakers called for training and public outreach that targets not only professional contractors but landscapers, homeowners and smaller firms who frequently do not call 811.

Participants agreed the nationally cited top causes in the Common Ground Alliance’s DIG report mirrored California experience but that the state also faces local variants. Michael Wurster of USIC, a locating company, said locator technician shortages and high ticket loads in California are driving errors: “a lot of the damages are occurring from locate companies not being able to keep up.” Speakers for utilities and contractors said the problem is not only that tickets are not created but that tickets often lack the detail locators need; better ticket descriptions and pre-job communication would reduce mistakes.

Multiple speakers urged tailoring outreach and training to different audiences. Eric Musker of Charge EPC and Josh Smith (Charge EPC) said breaking the broad label “excavator” into subgroups—commercial contractors, landscapers, homeowners—would allow more targeted education. Marjorie del Toro of EHS International Inc. urged more multilingual, hands-on training and better vetting of instructors and curricula: “death by PowerPoint is literally that,” she said, calling for apprenticeship and field-based programs that reach crews in the languages and learning styles they use.

Utilities described incentives and outreach efforts that have reduced repeat damages. A PG&E presenter said failure to notify 811 accounted for roughly “46 or 47%” of damages to its system; a utility speaker described offering a 10% bill reduction to excavators who accept on-site training after an incident. Several presenters recommended wider use of case studies and video-based incident reviews to make training more concrete and memorable.

A recurring operational issue was abandoned or unclaimed lines. Nathan Cathcart of the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Contract Administration described how private-property access and unmapped or unclaimed infrastructure create “false positives” that slow emergency repairs and create safety hazards. Speakers noted that California law requires marking for many facilities under Government Code section 4216, but locators and contractors said old, disconnected, privately owned or unclaimed facilities still frequently surface during excavation and often have no clear owner to contact.

Attendees proposed practical coordination steps: regional stakeholder roundtables, trade‑school and high‑school outreach to build a pipeline of trained workers, a field-friendly “excavation field guide” in addition to the lengthy statutory manual, and regular information sharing among one‑call centers, utilities and large contractors. Several participants urged the Underground Safety Board to work with the California State License Board and other agencies to reach small contractors and permit applicants, and to expand the board’s complaint-driven enforcement to address utilities or owners that do not participate in marking systems.

Speakers also highlighted existing local tools: Nathan and other presenters noted NavigateLA and similar municipal mapping systems can show storm and sewer infrastructure and said making such maps more broadly usable for contractors could reduce surprises. Others cautioned about cybersecurity and data‑sharing limits for certain utility records but said project-level data sharing can be done with appropriate safeguards.

The board closed by saying it will use workshop input to prioritize topics for future training and outreach sessions and asked attendees to sign up for updates. The committee announced the next board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 10–11 and provided a contact email for follow-up (digboard@energysafety.ca.gov).

Less-critical details: participants proposed starting with an annual statewide stakeholder convening and then creating more localized roundtables. Several trade organizations, including the California Regional Common Ground Alliance and industry training providers, volunteered to help coordinate events and to pilot field‑focused curricula.