Common Ground Alliance Launches Free Spanish-Language Safety Training to Protect Excavation Workers

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The Common Ground Alliance announced the launch of a free, online, Spanish-language version of its excavator safety training and certification curriculum. According to CGA’s recent Economic Impact Report, damage to underground utilities costs the U.S. economy an estimated $83.2 billion annually. Critically, direct repairs represent just 5.9% of that total, meaning for every dollar spent fixing a damaged line, nearly $16 more is lost to service disruptions, emergency response, community damage, injuries and loss of life. The launch is supported by a new Spanish-language marketing campaign in key U.S. markets — including California, Texas, Florida, Arizona and New York — […]

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DIRT Data Summary & Trends: CGA Index Reaches Record High in 2025

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Common Ground Alliance recently published a summary of 2025 Damage Information Reporting Tool data alongside a newly expanded interactive Damage Prevention Dashboard. CGA’s DIRT database is the most comprehensive accounting of damages to buried power, water, fiber, natural gas and other utility lines in the U.S. and Canada. The latest DIRT data reveals that the CGA Index, which measures year-over-year buried utility damage trends, reached a record high in 2025. DIRT Data Summary & Trends: CGA’s DIRT Summary & Trends analyzes 221,717 unique damage reports from 2025, demonstrating that damages continue to rise alongside construction activity (as measured by GDP). CGA […]

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AEM, CGA Partner to Expand 811 Safety Messaging Across New Equipment Sold in US

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The Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the Common Ground Alliance have partnered to advance safe digging awareness, support consistent industry guidance and promote best practices for contacting 811 before digging and operating equipment around underground infrastructure. As one of the first tangible actions under the shared principles, AEM and CGA are recommending that non-highway equipment manufacturers add an 811-reminder decal to equipment that may unintentionally dig into underground utilities. Such contact can cause power outages, utility service interruptions and lead to serious injury or death of the operator or innocent bystanders. The decal reminds operators to contact 811 to have […]

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Patent-Pending Tech May Help Prevent Hazardous Underground Utility Strikes

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The Common Ground Alliance estimated in 2019 that the annual total social costs of underground infrastructure damage in the United States reached approximately $30 billion. With that in mind, Purdue University engineers have developed a patent-pending method to decrease hazardous strikes to underground utility pipes during construction projects. Engineers are improving upon traditional ground-penetrating radar data to better estimate the location, orientation and radius of underground utility pipes with new technology that could lower related financial losses, service disruptions, injuries and fatalities. The research uses a Bayesian framework to quantify uncertainty in estimating underground pipe depth, horizontal position, orientation and […]

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Survey Data: More than 60M Plan to Dig this Spring

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In observance of National Safe Digging Month in April, Common Ground Alliance announced results from a new national survey. Nearly three in four American homeowners plan to tackle an outdoor project involving digging in the next 12 months, translating to an estimated 60 million households breaking ground this year. Yet an estimated 10 million plan to skip contacting 811 – the designated call-before-you-dig service that helps prevent dangerous and costly utility strikes. Striking an underground utility line – whether gas, electric, water, sewer or communications – can cause serious injury, service disruptions for entire neighborhoods and repair bills that could outpace any DIY savings. […]

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