Answering the phones
For nearly every utility mark sprayed on the ground throughout Pennsylvania, a call has come through the system’s headquarters in West Mifflin.
It takes a lot of effort and information to make the system seem simple. Twentyfour people work in the main call center from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Another three work in an addendum room staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year. An overflow area can hold 14 more.
Pennsylvania had the first computerized One Call system in the country and has been “pretty much on the cutting edge all the time” since then, said Bill Kiger, Pennsylvania One Call’s CEO, who has worked for the nonprofit since its founding.
He had to shout to be heard over the hum of cooling fans in the call center’s data storage room. He pointed to a wall of computers knit together with colorful cords that archive every system that will make it easier for utilities to share information about planned excavation projects so they can work on them simultaneously.
The idea is that with better planning and cooperation, utilities can avoid the costly cycle of digging up and paving roads just to see another utility with a separate project dig up and pave the same spot.
With major replacement projects overdue for natural gas, sewer, wastewater and waterlines in communities throughout the commonwealth, “Why not have everybody together do this once?” Mr. Kiger said.
“The local property owners are going to be a whole lot happier that you’re not tearing up their street multiple times. And when you don’t disturb something that’s there, you are causing fewer problems and less impact on thelines as they age.”
The system’s paramount concern is safety. Mr. Kiger said that when One Call was launched, there were about nine excavation-related fatalities in Pennsylvania a year. “In the ’90s, we went nine years without a fatality,” he said. “So I think that tells very readily that the system is working.”
A central part of One Call’s mission is making calling 811 — the universal One Call number — an essential step of every digging project, so One Call systems across the U.S. dedicate serious attention to training, education and public outreach.
That is why a framed pair of jockey Victor Espinoza’s pants were propped against a wall in a conference room on the center’s second floor.
The jockey wore the 811 logo on his boots and pants when he won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes horse races in 2014 and on his boots and saddle during the first two races on his way to winning the Triple Crown in 2015. A group of One Call centers, energy companies and utilities pooled resources to sponsor him.
“For the money we put into this, it was unbelievable