 Utilities are everywhere, from the rural countryside to major city streets. Like roads, utilities are part of our society's infrastructure. So it's logical that the paths of roads and utilities are often going across. And if you mess with them, you could find yourself in a lot of trouble. Every time you get to a new job site, first ask yourself, where are the hazards? Look around. There'll be a lot of moving hazards coming at you, like traffic and pedestrians. But you have to look at other levels too, like above and below you. These hazards can be more dangerous because they don't move and they're easy to forget about, especially when you're concentrating on other things, like getting the job done. Look at the overhead power and communication lines. How high are they? When your dump truck box is up, will it clear them? How about your excavator arm? Or your crane boom? Use a spotter on the ground to help guide you around them. And which lines are communication lines and which ones electrical power? Do you want to risk touching one to find out? You'd better know the dangers before you start moving your equipment in. Sometimes overhead lines are hard to spot when they're in the trees. And if they're out of sight, they're out of mind. Don't be taken out of a tree to find out there's a hot power line running through it. Any more utilities like electricity and telecommunications that used to be overhead are now buried underground and it's getting more and more crowded down there all the time. Here's where your worst nightmares are because even though you know they're there, you can't see them. What's worse is not having any idea of what's there. If you're going into an area at the start of a project and you don't see utility markers or signs, don't assume they're not there. They may not be in your immediate area, but most likely they are going to be somewhere close by. Check with your project supervisor to be sure they've called one call. One call is a center for contacting all the utilities by you just making one telephone call. In most states this is not an option. It's required by law. Contractors are responsible for informing all utility companies of where they're going to work in an area. And one call will do that for you. The utility companies will then come out and identify the location of their utilities. If they're going to be directly in your way, they may be able to reroute them. If they can't reroute them, you will have to work around them. Carefully. The utility company locator flags are color coded. Each color represents a different type of utility. Get to know what utility belongs to each color so you know what you're getting into at a glance. It's also good to remember that locator flags are only guides. They can be off by as much as 18 inches or more on either side. And they don't tell you how deep it is either. It can be a real guessing game, but you need to know these things before you start bringing in the heavy equipment. Locator flags also don't tell you if abandoned lines are buried there. If you unearth a utility and think it's what was marked, think again. It could be an abandoned line that's been replaced by a live one that's still buried out there. Even if you know it's abandoned, treat it like it was live, because it could be mismarked. Don't ever assume you know what's there and where it's at. That's why it makes a lot of sense to have a utility person out there who knows where it is. They'll come if it's going to keep you from damaging their facilities. So what kind of damage and hazards am I talking about? Why is all this care so important? If you damage a utility, you'll not only affect a lot of people in the community, possibly putting them in danger, but you could also put yourself in danger. Let's look at the four main kinds of utilities and the problems you can create if you damage them. Telecommunications are becoming more and more important these days. Many businesses depend on communications for their lifeblood. With a simple cut of a line, you could put thousands of people temporarily out of work. And you may be responsible for the resulting financial losses. We depend on telecommunications not only for daily living, but also for our protection. Emergency 911 phone lines can be cut just as easily as any other kind of cable or phone line. This kind of outage you don't want to be responsible for because it can lead to injuries or deaths. Because of what you do, you could be responsible for putting people in costly or dangerous situations and you and your company might have to pay dearly for it. In addition to lost time on your job and the losses you've created for others, you may have to pay legal fees and fines, not to mention the cost of repairing the break, which alone can cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Add all these losses together and your simple little cut of a communications line could cost you and your boss millions. Cutting electricity to a community can affect the lives of many people. Power loss to airports trying to control planes in the air. Power loss to hospitals and emergency rooms. Power loss causing expensive downtime for dozens of businesses and industries. But the seriousness of an electrical break comes back to you because you can be electrocuted. And so can your coworkers standing near you. Digging around natural gas lines is like looking for an unexploded bomb buried under you. If you hit it, you can cause a lot of damage, not only to others but to yourself as well. The shut off of gas to business, industrial and residential customers can create a huge monetary loss and also create safety hazards. When pressure is restored, gas valves may fail. The leaking gas could then be set off by the tiniest spark. The same can happen to you too. A single spark would likely kill you and probably others a hundred feet away. That's if you break the pipe. But even if you just scratch a gas pipe, you're not out of trouble. You've got to inform the gas company immediately. If it isn't fixed right away, it's like you've activated a time bomb. Years after you've gone, that scratch could become a leak resulting in an explosion out of nowhere and possible loss of life. Breaking into a water main can be a pretty messy operation but you still have to deal with it. You might think it's only water, but think again. The loss of it to users can cause some serious damage that you'll be responsible for. We depend a lot on water, not just to drink but also for important health reasons. And think about the possible loss of life if we don't have dependable fire protection. When you're working around a water main, don't forget, the water pressure inside is very high. Sometimes the slightest scratch or vibration can let loose that pressure and it can blow you away. You can get yourself into trouble too. If you're caught in that deep hole, water can fill it very fast making a quick exit nearly impossible. Even if you get the hole pumped out, you still have the problem of wet walls. Wet walls can easily cave in around you and before you know it, you'll be suffocated. Unlike water, raw sewage is not under pressure, but it can cause serious health problems. People and industrial processes toss all kinds of nasty things into the sewer every day. Bacteria, industrial wastes and chemicals you don't know anything about. Do you really want to wade in and work around this stuff? And what about sewer gas? Isn't that highly flammable? Utility companies have a big investment in their facilities and resources. They want to make sure you don't damage that investment. Often they'll bury a warning tape or ribbon to warn you that you're getting close. But don't expect that ribbon's going to be there every time. Some lines were buried long before warning tapes were thought of. If you have a question about a utility, call them. They'll be more than willing to guide you around their facilities and keep you out of trouble. Better still cover all your bases and call one call. Don't work in the dark. The point is you can work safely around utilities, but only if you respect them by being sure you know where they are. And you respect them when you know what kind of damage they can do to you and others. Just remember, every time you fire up, ask yourself, where are the hazards? If you're careful, you'll save the utility companies and your own company a lot of money and a lot of legal headaches. You'll also save the community a lot of hassles and perhaps a lot of injuries. Most of all, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble, maybe even your job, maybe even your life.