The new Utility Safety Partners (USP) Ground Disturbance 101 Standard focuses on the Best Practices established in the Canadian Common Ground Alliance Best Practices – Version 4.0. Professional Training Organizations endorsed to the USP Ground Disturbance 201 Standard are encouraged to submit Instructor Led and On-line Ground Disturbance 101 programs for endorsement. This will provide more options to industry for promoting damage prevention training developed to published standards, in their respective work sites.
It will be important for companies undertaking ground disturbance activities to complete an assessment of endorsed USP Ground Disturbance training programs (201 Supervisory or 101 Operations), and similarly, buried utilities/infrastructure owners will need to familiarize themselves with the two USP Ground Disturbance Standards to ascertain the relative certifications that would be appropriate for workers and supervisors active on their sites.
This is not something that will happen overnight. The Ground Disturbance stakeholders have worked diligently, over the past many years, expending tremendous resources, to raise the profile of "endorsed” training standards and the importance of ensuring all persons engaged in ground disturbance activities are suitably trained. Recently, this has been commonly understood to mean that all persons would hold a valid USP Endorsed Ground Disturbance 201 certificate.
Now, with the introduction of the:
USP Ground Disturbance 101 "Operations Level” Standard industry has options that will permit more appropriately targeted training for the experience, type of work and responsibilities assigned to on-site workers and supervisors.
Instructor-led training courses endorsed to the Ground Disturbance 101 "Operations Level” Standard are half-day classes, while endorsed online training programs endorsed to the Ground Disturbance 101 "Operations Level” Standard will range from 90 - 120 minutes.
Should you have any questions, or require more clarification as to how you might better leverage ground disturbance training/certification to achieve higher levels of damage prevention, feel free to contact Utility Safety Partners (1-800-242-3447), or any of the endorsed Training Providers referenced at Endorsed Training Providers | Utility Safety Partners.
Jeff Mulligan - Chief Operating Officer, ASTEC SAFETY Inc.