CGA DIRT Report for 2013 Vol. 10 Released September 2014

The Common Ground Alliance (CGA) has issued its Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) Report for 2013, providing a summary and analysis of the pipeline damage, near miss, and downtime events that occurred in 2013. The DIRT Report identifies the importance of calling 811 as most critical to safety. Last year there was a 3.5% decrease in damage incidents and an overall 10% increase in locate requests. The report also observed that natural gas and telecommunications industries experienced the most damage-related service interruptions.

The DIRT Report is a summary of utility damage data submitted anonymously from facility operators, locators, one-call centers, and regulators. The report gives us the opportunity to not only understand the root causes of damages, but to measure the effectiveness of damage prevention efforts and campaigns. DIRT offers insight on equipment used, type of work being performed, one-call notification, the effects of one-call exemptions, and regional differences.

The complete DIRT Annual Report for 2013 is available for download at the CGA website.