Know What's Below
When you see a tree, you know it has roots sprawling underfoot. When you pull weeds, you know that to get rid of them, you’ll have to pull them up by the roots spread across the whole garden just beneath the surface. What you may not think of quite as intuitively is that modern infrastructure has roots too. This month, Aii will be taking a look at modern roots to explore what our infrastructure looks like beneath our feet and how to safely interact with it.
Under the buildings, homes, parks, rivers, and roads across America, well over 20 million miles of buried facilities are pulsing with the power, water, gas, and telecommunications services needed to keep modern life running. When you look up at a street lamp at night, you can rest assured that the cool light illuminating the street corner is powered by electrical lines at its base running under the sidewalk, street, or even the grass nearby.
It is not difficult to understand, only something most people don’t think about. Underground facilities are out of sight, out of mind. But it is critical that we keep these things in our minds.
Damage prevention is the practice of avoiding underground utilities when digging. It begins with a basic rule: call 811 before any digging project. More nuanced damage prevention rules govern how best to dig, what tools to use, and how different stakeholders (e.g. the excavator, locator, utility company) interact with one another.
Stay with Aii this month during our third annual #ModernRootsMarch educational series. You may learn to recognize new aspects of the infrastructure around you. But most importantly, you can learn how to stay safe and protect others around you as well whenever you interact with the modern roots of American life!
Videos
Check out our video content for #ModernRootsMarch! These new videos were designed specifically for this campaign, to help you think about buried infrastructure in different ways. Check back throughout the month for more!
A Vision for the Future of Damage Prevention | Duration: 38:50
Asking Montana811 | 2024 Version | Duration: 07:47
Marine Safety with Texas811 | 2024 Version | Duration: 03:41
Safe Digging with Wednesday Addams | Duration: 00:42
American Infrastructure (American Psycho Parody) | Duration: 02:38
Aii Interviews Montana 811 | Duration: 04:24
The History of Buried Infrastructure | Duration: 03:31
Safe Digging with Wednesday Addams | Duration: 00:42
Safe Digging with Family Guy | Duration: 00:35
Fun Facts by State
Use interactive map below to learn something new about each state!
See What’s Below
Use the interactive sliders below to get you thinking and discover what lies beneath the surface! These graphics help depict how buried infrastructure is comparable to the roots of trees and plants. Just how different are modern roots from natural ones?
Importance of 811 Call Before You Dig
811 is considered to be a tremendous accomplishment for preventing underground utility damage. Still, though, the Common Ground Alliance estimates that over 500,000 pipes, cables, and wires are damaged during excavation projects each year. According to the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), “the cost of one utility strike may rise to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and insurance will typically not cover that loss.”
If the strike to the line prevents other customers and communities from receiving service, fines can increase, about $10,000 per hour or lost service, according to IRMI.
In 2019, CGA published a report detailing a five-year rising trend in excavation damage and an estimate that it cost the U.S. over $30 billion in economic costs in 2019 alone. Those costs include both direct and indirect costs, such as power outages and internet loss, but also deaths and injury that can occur when natural gas lines are disrupted.
Spray Paint Markings
There are millions of miles of pipes, cables, and wires beneath us! The consequences for damaging these lines are significant, and yet some people are still unfamiliar with how to safely navigate their digging project. The rule of thumb is that every dig requires a call. Even a simple tree planting or mailbox set up in your yard requires calling 811. They will begin the process for locators to visit your site and spray paint the area so you can see and know what is below before your shovel goes in blind!
Join The Campaign
Every year, the damage prevention industry comes together to increase awareness for 811. This is an incredible and valuable campaign, but we increasingly find that people need more education throughout the year. In 2021, Aii launched Modern Roots March to increase our nation’s infrastructure IQ and encourage Americans to think about what is below their feet. We all know that plants have roots, but the infrastructure we know and see every day like street lights, fire hydrants, traffic signals, and more all have roots extending beneath our feet for miles.
If you are a utility owner/operator, excavator, locator, one-call center, regulator, public works, or anyone in between, we welcome you to Modern Roots March and ask you to join the campaign. Before we get people thinking about Safe Digging in April, let’s ensure that everyone in America builds up the intuition that the things they rely on every day for modern life begin from roots underneath them in virtually every place they go.
Download from the Aii Toolkit
Choose from two different styles. Use the square graphics for Instagram and the taller posters as larger educational resources.
Read Our Other Reports
Damage Prevention in the United States incorporates a range of public policies and technologies. At Aii, studying the underlying challenges and presenting factual information is the first step to building a safer, more resilient future. Learn more:
More on Damage Prevention
Interested in learning more about damage prevention? Visit our issues page to learn about what supplies these modern roots.