Our Crumbling Infrastructure [aka Call Before You Dig]

[UPDATE: 01.10.09 - As mentioned, I recieved this as an email forward - one of those ubiquitous things that get pitched around in our digital age - thus had no context in which to verify the story. Thus, it turns out that the pics are from a corrosion-related rupture of the high pressure gas line along the Williams/Transco line north of the City of Appomattox, which occurred on September 14th of 2008. Apologies for the misinformation - but as I mentioned, one of those things that makes you wonder about our crumbling infrastructure, and you should still call and locate prior to doing any digging. Read more about it here. Also the pics are from a flickr photo stream from mattandashley - for proper attribution ...

...thanks to Dick for the comment pointing out the error - and thanks for the 7000+ visits for my stats - much appreciated - and not bad for a mistake!]

Call Before You Dig! - Original Post from 01.09.09
A colleague at work shot out the recent email with the caption above - showing the negative impacts of failing to locate subsurface utilities prior to digging.

The email, from an engineering firm, had the following text: "Take a look and see if “call before you dig” is a waste of time. These pictures are a result of mechanical post hole digging without calling for “locater service”. The employee hit an underground high pressure cross country gas pipe. Notice the point of contact was in the “middle of nowhere” of which some of your contractors may have used this very phrase."


:: point of impact - check out the scale on the 'crater'

The pics say it all...









Thanks Tim for the forward... yikes!