To Call or Not to Call?

In my teachings and seminars, I will often speak on the increasing threat of a catastrophic damage caused by an external entity such as excavator error resulting in a damaged gas facility. I explain that each damage opens us up to becoming statistically closer to a catastrophic failure or loss of life. Every time that call comes in, I often wonder is this the one, is today the day I explain how everything I do as damage prevention professional failed, because someone made the wrong decision. I studied decision making in college, I read books on decision making and understanding human error and yet I continue to be baffled by the way field operations and field workers take risks. Thursday’s damage in Montour Falls, New York was just that, a risk! And a costly risk at that.

The contractor was installing/re-lining an existing cross culvert under a busy roadway in Montour Falls at the very south end of Seneca Lake just two miles outside of Watkins Glen. The contractor was utilizing two excavators a large Link Belt to handle maneuvering the sleeve pipe into position. Unfortunately, during the preconstruction meeting no one caught that the length and diameter of pipe would not make the angle to insert it with the height and width of the existing storm water embankment.

The contractor stated that while pushing the sleeve in with the large link belt excavator the down pressure from the bucket pushed the tooth into the unmarked 6 inch plastic, medium pressure gas main below, causing a rupture. To make matter worse the damage was under high voltage electric which needed to be temporally cut dead and traffic in both directions was cut off from Watkins Glen and the Middle of Montour Falls as well as hundreds of precautionary evacuations includding an assisted living facility. In a situation like this best practice is to isolate the leak with least amount of disruptions; unfortunately for our team and the village of Montour Falls the one-way feed to the town could not sustain enough pressure and a quick decision was made to squeeze the main off to the west of the damage, cutting gas to the entire town of Montour Falls.

Once the area was made safe electric was restored, traffic was redirected and residence returned home. Then the real work began; incident command was set up in the village and everyone got to work. Mutual aid was called in across the area to assist with 453 gas customers, which all had to be turned off and then later turned back on.

The investigation revealed that during the initial preconstruction meeting it was agreed that this job did not involve an exaction and there was no need to call UDig NY for an 811 stake out request. The contractor durring his interview, reviewed the scope of the job and merely stated that this was cut and dry, use the excavator to maneuver the large sleeve pipe into position and push it through the larger existing cross culvert. The contractor remained adamant that no excavation occurred and led with the down pressure of the bucket pierced the main with the tooth.

I, as well as many of you reading this can agree that if you go to the beach to swim, but bring a bucket and shovel too, you wont just swim! The same goes with any piece of excavation equipment, it’s meant to dig and dig you will do, no matter what the circumstances are; and in this case, in order to achieve the appropriate angel of the new sleeve and the recieving culvert, the bank needed to be cut back and cut down; which is exactly what they did with the excavator. A no brainer for sure, other than the fact that unbeknownst to them the six-inch gas main laid quietly below safely supplying gas to 453 customers in Montour Falls.

So, to call or not to call; It's always the safest decision to call no matter what! Thankfully this was a catastrophic incident that did not include the loss of life, but could have easily and quickly turned into that, had it not been for the quick and appropriate decisions on the part of Schuler County Emergency Management teams and NYSEG. The one call system is not something new and has been around for nearly 50 years; the damage prevention professionals across New York take our jobs and this line of work very seriously! The number one thing we teach and preach is call 811 UDIG NY; its simple free and can prevent damages just like this!