One Year In: The Success of Utility Safety Partners’ Alternate Locate Provider Program

Mike Sullivan, President, Utility Safety Partners 

In just one year, Utility Safety Partners’ (USP) Alternate Locate Provider (ALP) program has proven to be a game-changer in Alberta’s damage prevention landscape. What began as a bold initiative to expand locator capacity and reduce damages has exceeded expectations, setting a new benchmark for collaboration, efficiency, and safety.

Meeting the Challenge Head-On

Like many jurisdictions across North America, Alberta faced a growing challenge: a limited pool of locators tasked with keeping pace with rising excavation demand. Effective ClickBeforeYouDig awareness programs, supported by hundreds of buried utility members across the province, met head-on with seasonal spikes in excavation demand, workforce shortages, and infrastructure growth creating delays, frustrating contractors, and unfortunately, increasing the risk of damage. While the locate request process and data management experienced unforeseen advancements over the past decade, the act of ‘getting paint on the ground’ hadn’t changed in thirty years.

USP’s ALP program, launched in August 2024, offered a practical solution - allowing qualified alternate providers to perform locates under a structured, accountable framework. This model not only relieved pressure on traditional locate resources, but also gave industry stakeholders more choice and flexibility.

Results That Matter

The first year of implementation has delivered measurable and meaningful results:

• Introduced an Option: The ALP provides the digging community with the option of selecting a registered locate service provider to facilitate locating and marking buried energy and utility assets rather than the conventional method where utility owner contractors provide the service.
• Increased Capacity: The ALP program unleashed the contract locator bottleneck and expanded locator availability for Consortium and large infrastructure owner locating; unleashing the capacity that was there to do types of work that were previously blocked to that capacity ensuring projects stayed on schedule.
• Reduced Damages: With faster, more reliable locates, the province saw a dramatic reduction in damages to buried facilities (at the time of this writing, only 2 damages over 35,000+ projects), protecting Albertans, the environment, and critical infrastructure.
• Improved Contractor Satisfaction: Feedback from contractors highlights the value of choice, with many praising shorter delays and greater confidence in project planning.
• Operational Resilience: By diversifying locate capacity, the program reduced the risk of bottlenecks during high-demand periods such as spring thaw and peak construction season and has led to a stronger more diversified pool of locators that the industry can continue to rely on moving forward.

A Model of Collaboration

The success of the ALP program rests on its foundation of collaboration. Utilities, contractors, locate service providers, and regulators worked together to design a system that maintains the highest standards of safety and accountability while enabling flexibility.

Robust oversight and auditing ensure all providers meet or exceed industry standards, maintaining the integrity of Alberta’s damage prevention system.

Looking Ahead

The first year of the Alternate Locate Provider program is just the beginning. USP is committed to refining the model, sharing lessons learned with partners across Canada and the United States, and supporting collective goals to reducing damages. Interest in the program from both excavators and locate service providers continues to be strong and we continue to see new applicants for ALSP registration. USP also anticipates members of the digging community, capable of becoming ALSPs, will eventually absorb the locating and marking function into their business.

As excavation demand continues to grow, Alberta’s ALP program demonstrates how innovation, collaboration, and a willingness to rethink traditional models can deliver real, measurable improvements in public safety and infrastructure protection.