1. a summary by
2017
Report

2. What is the DIRT report?
The Common Ground Alliance (CGA) publishes an annual report based on data entered into the Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) for a given year
Data collection began in 2004
The most recent version, the 2017 DIRT Report, was published in September 2018 and provides analysis on data submitted into DIRT for 2017

3. Where does DIRT data come from?
Any registered stakeholder can report an event
More than 411,000 event records submitted in 2017 (up 5%)
Multiple reports of a single event are identified and weighted
Weighting consolidated event count down to 318,030
Removal of near-miss reports leaves 316,422 damages (305,799 in the United States alone)

4. What are the limitations of the data?
Over 50 percent of 2017 DIRT reports had UNKNOWN/OTHER/DNC as the Excavator Type.
Work Performed and Equipment Type also had over 50 percent of UNKNOWN selections.
More 2017 DIRT reports had all three questions answered UNKNOWN (38 percent) than all three with a “known” selection (16 percent).
These are all original DIRT questions.

5. What are the limitations of the data?
In some cases, details pertaining to damage events are unknown or not collected
Reports are frequently missing key pieces of information like root cause, type of excavator, equipment used, and work performed
Reported data is not a complete census of damage to all buried facility operators
Some jurisdictions contain more comprehensive data than others

6. Who reports the damages?

7. What about damages not reported to DIRT?
10 states are considered substantial reporting states
These states accounted for 144,230 of the 316,442 reported in 2017
The substantial reporting states were used to establish which known variables are best for predicting the number of damages occurring in those states
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Kansas
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Texas
Virginia

8. What are the numbers?
2015
2016
2017
Reported Events (total entered in DIRT)
363,176
390,366
411,867
Reported Near Misses (unique events)
9,485
6,093
1,488
Reported Damages (unique events)
278,861
317,869
316,442
Estimated Damages (original method)
317,000
379,000
N/A
Estimated Damages (revised method)
378,000
416,000
439,000

9. So damages are up?

10. When do damages occur?
279,760 reported damages occurred during the work week
26,038 occurred on weekends
Even for occupants (not professional excavators), most damages occur during the week
The majority of damages occur in June, July, August, and September
August leads the other months, with 11% of damages

11. What’s causing the damage?
Most reported damages (52%) are the result of insufficient excavation practices.
Approximately a quarter of the damages (24%) resulted from notification not made to the one-call center.
Approximately 17% are due to locating issues.

12. What’s causing the damage?

13. New questions for 2018 reports
Did event involve a cross bore?
Was facility operator exempt from one call membership?
Minimum depth from grade
Was excavator/excavation exempt from 811 notification?
Was work area white-lined?

14. Who’s causing the damage?
The leading type of excavator involved in damages is contractor at about 61%.
Occupants and Farmers make up about 5%.
For reports where a root cause is provided, 78% involving occupants with hand tools are due to no notification to the one-call center.
For Contractors with backhoes, it’s about 21% due to no notification to the one-call center, with excavating practices making up about 43%.

15. Who’s causing the damage?
Excavator
Work Performed
Equipment Used
Reported Damages
Contractor
Water
Backhoe/Trackhoe
4,812
Sewer
4,624
CaTV
Trencher
2,555
2,376
Electric
2,262
2,219
Natural Gas
2,104
2,056
Fencing
Auger
1,709
Bldg Construction
1,627

16. What does this mean for awareness?

17. What does this mean for awareness?

18. What does this mean for awareness?

19. What about Tennessee?

20. What about Tennessee?
7,891
Details available in the dashboard