Close the loop!

Close the loop! The communication required for a successful stake-out is a two-way street. The excavator starts this process by calling Dig|Safely. New York; the utilities have to complete this circle by notifying the excavator of their stake-out results.

Look at the facts - if a utility hasn't told the excavator what's going on, the excavator is going to have to guess whether the member facility operators have shown up to the work-site. For each utility, the excavator will have to decide if a site is clear because there's nothing there or if they didn't respond; and for marks that ARE there, the excavator will have to hope the stake-out is complete. No matter how you look at it, this is a nightmare.

To help combat this, Dig|Safely. New York has worked with excavators, utilities, and the PSC to find a solution. The result is a thing called "Positive Response", and is required by law... each utility must "close the loop" of communication by telling the excavator the results of the stake-out.

The first step towards closing the loop begins when excavators call Dig|Safely. New York to make a stake-out request. When we have taken a request, the excavator is given a list of member utilities who will receive this request. Excavators then use this list to track which utilities have and have not yet marked the work-site.

As each member utility finishes either clearing or marking a work-site, they feed that result into the Dig|Safely. New York APR System, which allows the excavator to track the results. The excavator can then use these results to account for what markings should be found on site.

After a utility has finished marking or clearing a worksite, it is important that the utility contact the excavators to let them know the results. This is important for four reasons:

Positive Response from the utility is required by law.
The excavator, by law, is not allowed to start the excavation until all utilities notified by Dig|Safely. New York have responded.
If the site is clear, there are no markings to tell the excavator whether the utility has responded.
Even if there are markings, the excavator cannot tell if the stake-out was completed or interrupted by an emergency somewhere else, or if all markings are intact.

The solution to all of this? Automated Positive Response.

Dig|Safely. New York is the communications hub linking the excavator to the utilities. Closing the loop from the utilities back to the excavator completes the circle of communication and clears up confusion.