ST PAUL, Minn. — There's a new effort at the State Capitol to help contractors avoid hitting buried utility lines while digging on construction projects.
The legislation, House File 2717, would modernize the way buried pipelines and cables are marked and identified, to give those on site a better real-time knowledge of potential subterranean surprises.
"Current state statute is based on outdated technology and processes for marking and mapping underground infrastructure," Laura Ziegler of the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota told reporters Wednesday.
"There have not been significant updates in almost 40 years. This often leaves contractors and project owners in the dark."
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Larry Craft of St. Louis Park and Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin, would require utilities to do geospatial mapping of new buried cables and pipelines, so that information can be made available at construction sites.
"There’s more and more stuff underground – gas lines, cable lines, phone lines, power lines, water mains, pipelines, and more and more fiber for broadband," Rep. Kraft remarked.
"Digging in the wrong place can range in impacts from creating a nuisance to shutting down a facility or a street to putting lives at risk."
Sen. Hoffman said the bill will promote more coordination and communication between all the players involved in projects that require digging.
"This gets us to where, 'Guess what? Now I have that digital moment in time.' That would alleviate some of the stress of an excavator going down there, not knowing when you’ll hit a gas pipe."
Homeowners and contractors in Minnesota are required to contact Gopher State One Call by dialing 8-1-1 before they do any serious digging. That triggers a survey and marking process.
However, contractors said the markings are often based on outdated information, which can lead to problems.
"We think we’re clear to start digging and then we’ll find an appurtenance -- something coming off the pipeline -- and that’s what we strike," John Hass of Veit & Company explained.
"We had 16 gas strikes in the last two years and 11 of those were mismarked or not marked appurtenances coming off the pipeline – extensions of the pipe."
And it goes beyond protecting workers and averting massive fiber optic outages. The delays caused by mismarked utility lines also add up for taxpayers.
Ramsey County Commissioner Nicole Frethem cited the Lexington Avenue Project in Arden Hills and Shoreview as an example of a project that was stalled by unmarked buried lines.
"Unmarked utility lines were a significant and primary factor in the increase in cost of the project, doubling of the timeline to complete the project, and a far more substantial access impact to businesses and the community than we initially expected and prepared for," Commissioner Frethem told reporters.
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