The Common Ground Alliance (CGA), a national nonprofit trade association dedicated to protecting underground utility lines and the people who dig near them, recently announced the findings from its 2019 Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) Report.
The report analyzed all 2019 data submitted voluntarily by facility operators, utility locating companies, one-call centers, contractors, regulators and others from the U.S. and Canada using an in-depth statistical modeling process. The results of this analysis found that an estimated 532,000 excavation-related damages to underground facilities occurred in the U.S. in 2019, a 4.5% increase compared to the 2018 estimate of 509,000 damages.
The report also examined the direct and
