Because what’s underground can be just as dangerous as what’s above it, and one phone call can make all the difference.
August 11th is National 811 Day, and if you work in construction or utility services, you are intimately familiar with the need to look before you dig. 811 Day is an annual initiative led by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) dedicated to promoting one of the simplest and most important safety practices in the industry, calling 811 before you dig.
Here’s why it matters. The United States has over 3.3 million miles of pipeline running beneath our feet that carry natural gas, water, electricity, communications, and more through communities across the country. That also doesn’t include anything the former homeowner may have buried and left behind. Homeowners, landscapers, contractors of every size, and anyone else planning to dig should take the initiative to call first. Every time someone breaks ground without knowing what’s below, they’re rolling the dice on striking one of those lines. The consequences can range from a service outage to a serious injury, an environmental disaster, or worse. Excavation damage remains the leading cause of pipeline incidents in the country, and the frustrating reality is that almost every single one of those incidents is completely avoidable.
That’s exactly what 811 exists for. By calling 811 or visiting call811.com before any excavation project, no matter how big or small, homeowners and crews can have underground utilities located and marked before a single shovel hits the ground. According to PHMSA, calling 811 before digging carries a 99% chance of avoiding an incident entirely. And yet, every year, thousands of underground utility lines are struck by those who skipped that one call. Underground utilities don’t discriminate by project size, and neither do the consequences of hitting one.
For Danella, safe digging is part of our protocols before ever starting a new electric, gas, water, or communications project across the country. Understanding and respecting what lies beneath the surface is fundamental to how we operate—in fact, we are part of the 811 operations with our locating team in Delaware and Maryland. Every project, every job site, every dig starts with the same foundation: know what’s below.
National 811 Day is a good reminder to make that call, but the habit behind it has to live year-round. Before you dig, always call 811.
– Morgan Peta, Marketing Intern