Click to Know What’s Above and Below in Alberta!

Click to Know What’s Above and Below in Alberta!

For almost four decades, Alberta One-Call Corporation (AOC) has provided nation-leading Call and ClickBeforeYouDig services to protect public, worker and community safety. This year, we are adding overhead powerline safety to our mandate and unifying services with the Alberta Common Ground Alliance.

Every year, AOC processes roughly 400,000 locate requests from safety-minded Albertans planning a digging project (AOC provides those same services to Manitoba ClickBeforeYouDig and Saskatchewan First Call). Those requests initiate a damage prevention process that protects you, your family and your community. 

But safety isn’t just about knowing what’s below, it’s also about knowing what’s overhead and knowing how to work safe. 

The Where’s the Line? campaign in Alberta, administered by EPCOR, ENMAX, FortisAlberta, ATCO Electric and AltaLink, has been providing overhead utility safety awareness to Albertans for years and the similarities with AOC’s damage prevention services are considerable. In that light, it made sense to align services. So, in addition to mapping buried utilities, AOC will soon be mapping the location of overhead powerlines and notifying anyone digging or carrying out surface work how to do so safely.

“It’s all about safety,” says contact centre manager Joseph Rosenberg. “Whether the utilities are buried or overhead, it’s really no different. It’s all data. We process your request; notify our members who operate buried and aboveground energy and utility assets in the vicinity of the proposed activity, and they respond accordingly.” 

“The courtship between AOC and Where’s the Line? has been a long one,” jests Mona Barstoff with FortisAlberta, “but the time is right to join forces and we’re all really excited to work together!”