A New Safety Standard - In 3D

Collaboration and virtual reality technology help reduce dangerous utility strikes.

Even after contractors call 811, they frequently hit underground lines during construction. While our prevention process includes gathering all as-built utility information, performing public and private utility locates and performing potholing, drawings and information can be incomplete, inaccurate or nonexistent.

Utility strikes can negatively impact schedule and budget, interrupt critical services, damage property and, worse, cause serious injuries or deaths. So Pepper opened a dialogue with trade partners who regularly perform underground work on our projects. Together we aimed to identify challenges and process breakdowns that would answer why utility strikes still occasionally occurred.

This resulted in a 10-step process that is now the Underground Utility Damage Prevention standard for our projects. The payoff is priceless: reducing the risk of delays, line damage, fines, costly repairs, injury and even death.