LUCC

Important News

Calling before you dig...

What happens when you call before you dig:

You call us.
We notify member companies.
Member utilities mark burried utilities.
You dig safely.

What happens if you don't call:

Interruption of service
Job and project delays
Legal problems
Accidents and injuries

Lane Utilities Coordinating Council (LUCC) is a non-profit organization of utilities, government agencies, contractors, and vendors in Lane County, Oregon. LUCC is a council chapter of the Oregon Utility Coordinating Council, organized to promote the call-before-you-dig law and one-call number 811. LUCC also coordinates street encroachments between various utilities to ensure efficient use by all parties. Anyone interested in joining LUCC is welcome to attend one of our monthly meetings. Regular meetings are scheduled on the first Thursday of each month from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Sizzler's, 1010 Postal Way, Springfield, Oregon.

HBA Golf Tournment Pictures (click here)

Lane Utility Coordinating Council recently sponsored a hole at the 2018 Home Builders Association Golf Tournament at Emerald valley Golf Course. Here are some pictures of a couple members enjoying the tournament.

June 2018 Meeting Minutes

Details: Written by Amy Abramson; Category: Minutes; Published: 03 August 2018; Hits: 118

LUCC Meeting Minutes

June 7th, 2018

Welcome – President Roman Hernandez called the meeting to order and welcomed all attendees.

Self-Introductions – 28 people were present.

Meeting Minutes –Meeting minutes were approved at the opening of the meeting.

Treasurers Report – Naomi Shirtcliff: not present

Publicity & Education- Jim Franklin: brochure stock is almost gone, which is great that people are taking the information. Placed another order to restock the supplies. These are free of charge to LUCC.

Damage Report- Brian Siria: not present

Web Page- Amy Abramson: Debbie had to resign from LUCC, last month was her last meeting. After the meeting I spoke to her, and volunteered to take over her Web Page duties for LUCC. I met with her last month and got signed up as an administrator for the website and have the contact info for the site host. The website is currently up to date. To confirm the transfer of duties, the attending officers and members voted in favor of me taking over the Web Page duties.

OUCC Standards Review – Robert Spencer: FAQ’s page 42: “Does sidewalk and road maintenance require locates?” … Yes, with one exception. Sidewalk, road or ditch maintenance less than 12inches in depth that does not lower the original grade. However it is still highly recommended.

Old Business: CenturyLink and Comcast are both still working on getting their phone numbers updated with the 811 One-Call Center.

New Business: The July meeting is cancelled.

The NW Utility Coordinating Council will be hosting a Joint States meeting in Vancouver, WA. October 2nd-4th at the Heathman Lodge. The meeting will include members from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. It was proposed to budget for sending someone from LUCC to the event. We will revisit this in August.

Jason Williams brought us an opportunity to sponsor a hole at the HBA Golf Tournament at Emerald Valley Golf Course. Sponsorship is $100 per hole and will give us a hole to hang our banner. All attending members and officers voted in favor of this sponsorship. Naomi will send in the application and payment.

Jim asked for ideas of how to recruit new members to LUCC. It was suggested to target previous members that have fallen off in recent years, and try reaching out to the top 20 or so contractors that have submitted locate tickets in the last year. Amy is sending Jim the 2016 members list to start with.

Program: Debrief on Large Projects (EMX as example)

EWEB Locators felt that Wildish did a great job calling in locates. They gave good directions and broke the locates into manageable chunks that didn’t overwhelm the locators. They also used GPS to save points, which reduced the number of updates / remarking of locates. However, the survey group that called in the pre-survey locates were not as well done. Locators complained the scope of the locates were too large. The tickets called for marking the entire W 11^th corridor on one ticket. It took EWEB about two months to complete the pre-survey locate.

EWEB mentioned the weekly project meetings with the City, Wildish, all utility representatives and other primary contractors, really helped with the coordination of work. They discussed timelines, work zones, safety issues, traffic control, etc. Each rep would bring their “plan for the week” to the meeting so there was no overlap/conflicts of work zone space. It also helped with Joint-Use trench work and restoration.

There were a few damages that occurred over the 2 years of the project but all felt it was minimal considering the scope of the project.

Other issues found included the night work requirement slowed progress a lot and rules for night work didn’t seem to be the same for all contractors. EWEB saw some contractors working during the day in the same work zone that EWEB had to do night work. What was the difference?

Locators found it frustrating that C2 would call in large locate tickets but then end up pot holing a small area to expose an existing vacant conduit. They also found them calling in tickets after the other utilities finished their construction, duplicating work for the locators. C2 was often not present at the weekly project meetings. CTL says they are aware of these issues and are actively work with them to better their practices.

EWEB responded to over 2000 locates for the EMX project over a 2 year period; How can we reduce the number of remarking/updated tickets? – Contactors can use white paint to circle locate marks. They should not use locate colors to “re-paint” a locators marks as it tampers with the original marks. Stakes and whiskers can be used in direct location of marks or by using off-sets. GPS pin points are also a great tool.

The conversation rounded out with a good feeling of accomplishment and coordination on the EMX project.

Let’s keep the communication open regarding the next phase of EMX and the 20/21 Track & Field games coming to town. There will be a big increase in traffic, which could hinder permits and work zone safety. Utility usage will likely also see an upswing during the event.

Meeting Adjourned- 1:00pm

Next Meeting Topic: No July Meeting.

August Meeting: Jason Williams – NWN Damage Prevention

“Recent Damages and How They Could Be Prevented” - 15 Mins

May 2018 Meeting Minutes

Details: Written by Amy Abramson; Category: Minutes; Published: 21 June 2018; Hits: 242

LUCC Meeting Minutes

May 3rd, 2018

Welcome – President Roman Hernandez called the meeting to order and welcomed all attendees.

Self-Introductions – 25 people were present.

Meeting Minutes –Meeting minutes were approved at the opening of the meeting.

Treasurers Report – Naomi Shirtcliff: Not present

Publicity & Education- Jim Franklin: all the rental companies have been restocked with brochures. Most of them were completely depleted, so people are taking the info, as hoped.

Damage Report- Brian Siria: none

Web Page- Debbie Jenkins: the website is up to date.

OUCC Standards Review – Robert Spencer: read section 952-001-0060 “When Excavator May Give Less than Forty-Eight (48) Hour Notice” – Emergency situations. Another discussion of a recent locate that CTL wasn’t notified on a ticket, an excavator noticed an unmarked pole dip and called it in. How do we prevent that from happening? It was suggested to make sure your service areas are up to date with the One Call center.

Old Business: CenturyLink is working on updating their contact phone numbers on the locate tickets.

New Business: Debbie is leaving the LUCC and will need someone to volunteer to take on the Web Page duties. It is currently listed as an officer position but can be merged into another officers duties. The web page doesn’t require very much time to maintain. She can keep the site up to date until someone can take it over. Debbie will also continue to participate in the Run to Stay Warm event.

Program: Edi w/ HILTI: Effective July 1^st 2018, new OSHA regulations require dust control to be mitigated to nearly zero airborne particles. They also now require each company to have a written dust control plan.

Previous requirements were 250micrograms/ M³ in an 8 hour period, it will now be 50micrograms/ M³ in an 8 hour period. Edi explained what the options for compliance will be.

Option 1: Conduct an exposure assessment for employees exposed to more than 25ug/M³ in 8 hrs.

Option 2: Provide respirators to employees exposed to more than 50ug/M³. Employees that are required to wear a respirator more than 30 days per year must be provided with medical screenings.

Option 3: Use methods described in TABLE 1. Hilti launched dust control solution packages about 5 years ago, ahead of this new OSHA requirement, that are specifically designed for dust control mitigation to meet these new standards. Edi provided product charts with descriptions of what tools Hilti has to offer and explained some technology advancements they have implemented in the dust control line of tools.

Meeting Adjourned- 1:03 pm

Next Meeting Topic: Debrief on Large Projects (EMX as example)