Underground Service Alert of Northern California and Nevada, commonly known as USA North 811 and abbreviated as USAN in this message, is the organization to "call 811 before you dig" to arrange to have underground utility lines located and marked so they can be avoided during excavation. We are a nonprofit organization, funded by our 1,500+ member utility operators in northern California and Nevada. Some member utility operators are private-sector companies like AT&T and PG&E while others are public-sector agencies like cities, counties, and water districts. USAN is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting our underground utility infrastructure from damage that could occur during excavation. We serve the northern 2/3 of California (49 counties, starting with Kern and going north, but not counting Inyo). The 811 contact center that serves the remaining 9 southern California counties is called DigAlert.
When an excavator (contractor, homeowner, public works crew, utility crew, etc.) wishes to have underground utility lines located and marked before digging, the excavator can call 811 or use our website or mobile app to create a locate request "ticket" to provide information about the upcoming project, including contact information, details about the excavation, and the dig site's location and dimensions. USAN uses GIS to determine which utility operators need to know about the upcoming excavation so we can send them the ticket document, allowing them to take action to protect their underground assets from potential damage. The typical response is for each utility owner to send a field technician to the dig site, locate their underground assets in the area, and mark them with colored paint and flags so the excavator can avoid damaging them. Similar to how a 911 dispatch center determines which police, fire, and medical agencies need to respond to an emergency at a specific location, USAN acts like dispatch for utility operators to determine who needs to know about digging at a specific location.
From a GIS perspective, we basically perform a massive spatial intersect query -- the excavator draws a "dig site polygon" on top of our GIS basemap. If that polygon intersects the "area of interest polygon" of a utility operator, USAN will send the ticket to that operator. We received 1.94 million incoming tickets in 2022, resulting in over 10 mil ion outbound ticket deliveries to utility operators. I would be happy to give a demo to CGIA if the group is interested, although I did it once before on 10/14/2021. I'm happy to do it again if the group would like, but I'm not offended if there is no interest at this time since I presented to the group less than 2 years ago.
We sponsor CGIA financially because we use GIS data created and maintained by CGIA members to perform our core functions. For us to determine which utility operators need to receive the ticket, we must provide tools to enable the excavator to find the dig site location and then draw the dig site polygon accurately and precisely. Thus, we use parcels, address points, road centerlines, highway milepost markers, railroad milepost markers, PLSS townships and sections, oil & gas wells, etc., and we recognize that these framework data layers are the fruits of your (CGIA members') labors.
James Wingate
Executive Director
Underground Service Alert of Northern California & Nevada