Welcome to Julie's Toolbox Talks podcast, your go-to resource for safe digging and protecting Illinois's underground infrastructure. Each episode, we'll share practical tips, real stories, and expert insights to help you dig smart, stay safe, and keep your projects on solid ground. Brought to you by Julie Illinois Facility Notification Center.

Hello and welcome to Julie's Toolbox Talks podcast brought to you by Julie Illinois Facility Notification Center. I'm your host Jill Sailor. Thanks for tuning in. In this episode, we're discussing Draw the Line: Why Premarking Matters. And today we're talking about something that's fundamental to excavation safety and efficiency. It's pre-marking. In this episode, we're going to highlight why marking a job site before locators arrive is so important. We're also going to explore how pre-marketing improves communication. It reduces confusion. It prevents delays and it ultimately keeps everyone on the job safer. And we're also going to get some tips and strategies that others can apply to improve their own premarking practices. But before we jump in today to today's topic, I'd like to welcome my co-host Brian McKenzie. Brian has been championing damage prevention across central Illinois since 2012 and he has unmatched passion and expertise. Brian, how are you doing today?

Good to see you, Jill. Hello. How are you?

I'm doing good. Hey, Brian, if I understand correctly, you just got back from a fabulous trip in Scotland.

Absolutely. Daughter got married over there. We got to visit some of the McKenzie castles. It was fantastic.

Well, I absolutely love that. Well, congratulations to your daughter. That's great. Well, Brian, uh, let's meet today's guest, Greg Price. Greg is the director of operations at Electric Conduit Construction. He's based in Elburn, Illinois, and he has over 20 years in utility construction experience. Greg has led major overhead and underground infrastructure projects, everything from fiber optics to intelligent transportation systems. And Greg is also widely known for a strong uh, safety culture that he promotes. It actually earned ECC the Crown Castle Safety Award in 2023. And he's also a familiar voice in industry conversations about damage prevention and the future of infrastructure. Greg, welcome.

Good morning. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much.

Well, we're excited to learn some of your expertise today. Brian, do you want to dig in?

Absolutely. Welcome, Greg. Good to see you. Walk us through your role. Well, how does premarking fit into your work, the stuff that you do every day?

Well, as far as my role goes here at Electric Conduit Construction, um I'm the director of operations and currently we're running about in out in the field on our labor force. We're running about 225 people out in the field in all different kinds of areas. We do we're pretty much a turnkey company. Um, we have restoration crews. We have directional bore crews, uh, trench crews, overhead, uh, distribution. We do a lot of fiber work around the area, both underground and aerial. Um, that right down to the testing, the splicing of the fiber. Um, so that's pretty much my role. I watch over all of that. Um, all of our equipment, our safety department, things like that. So, um, uh, that's about it for my role, but the, uh, pre-marking comes into play. It's so important, uh, to have a good communication out there with not only the locators, the utility owners, and our own crews so that they can be safe and productive out in the field when they get on their job sites.

I'm an ex-locator, you know, obviously. So, uh, you know, I've been with Julie going on 13 years, located for well over 10 years. But that one thing I never really understood is that the excavators take all this time to get the job and you know but the energy of putting the tickets in it just seems like they forget about one of the most important keys and that's pre-marking. I mean that that's going to get you a better locate. Locators aren't wasting their time on an area that you're not even going to dig in that may have something that's difficult to locate. Right? If your guys are going on the other side of the road and they're wasting all that time and resources on there. That that's just one thing that that is really mind-numbing from my standpoint. I I just can't see that. But I'm so glad that you guys do that. And and from your perspective, why is pre-marking such a key part for these projects to to keep it safe and efficient?

You know, um, so I've been fortunate enough, I've been in the industry since 1990 when I, uh, got out of the Air Force and I started at the bottom of the feed, uh, panel there. So, I was down in ditches digging holes and, you know, helping load rods onto directional drill rigs. And so I've, you know, back then I've seen the delays that have occurred and just the safety alone of um executing projects. And so over the years, you know, we we we looked at different things and how we can improve to make it safer and more productive out there. And it's with, you know, what we have here at Electric Conduit. I believe it's we have a lot more to it than just pre-marking. Um, and we're very fortunate that we can do this with our crews. Um, and I know I think a lot of companies don't have the resources to be able to do it the way we do it. Um, and what I what I mean by that is so we'll get an approved job from a customer that's it's ready for construction. The first step we take is we we get out there with a person and that individual goes out. We do the pre-marking. So, we're either putting flags down or we're painting identifying our running line according to our issued drawings. Um, and while we're doing that, we're also videotaping. We're taking pictures out there of existing utilities that you know this and this is prior to any markings being done. Okay? So, we're taking uh pictures of damage, whether it's cracked driveway aprons, broken fences, rutted up parkways, things like that. We're we're getting pictures of that before we've even had a crew on site so that we can't get blamed. There's been many times where, you know, we send a crew to a job and next thing we know, we have a business owner or homeowner coming out saying, "You damaged this and you need to fix this for us or replace it." And we can reference back to our pictures and dates and say, "I'm sorry, sir. You know, this was like this before we even got here." Okay. So, um along with the pictures, the videos, we're putting door hangers on all the buildings, whether it's business. And on that, it just says we're Electric Conduit, we're coming into the area to work. And it actually has my personal cell phone number on it. And I get many calls throughout the week over the weekends to, you know, explain exactly what we got going on. Um, so then with that information that that individual gets for us, we can call in a very accurate um ticket, a one call ticket um to the facility to get those locators out there. And you know, by doing that, like you were saying in the beginning, the locators go out. It it makes it clear for them on where you need them to locate, where you're going to be working, and just get some accurate locates. And it also allows them to, you know, I can they call me on the phone with questions. I can walk them through it because we've been out there, we've gotten eyes on it, and we know where we're going. So, it's that's very beneficial. So, yeah.

I was going to say too, uh, Brian and Greg, as a homeowner, I've had where, um, a company like yours just came through and put the information on the door. And it is so helpful to have someone who you can contact as a homeowner just because there might be questions that you have, you know, about like um, time of day that you might be here, do I need to secure my dog? Like, is there anything I can do? So, it's just really helpful to do that kind of a pre-visit like you're saying that just sets everybody up for success.

That's great from my standpoint of of you know coming from the field and then now educating people on the field in the field about this. It's comforting for me to hear all of the the steps that you take and I'm just fascinated that you do go above and beyond. And like I said, we try to teach and educate that if if this was done in the beginning, this is only going to help you in the end. And I'm just curious, do you happen to have any feedback on do you really think this is helping you guys save time and energy by going out and pre-marking first?

There's the other step that we have to our pre-marking too prior to a crew being out there is once the the one call ticket clears through the system and we're good to go and start our construction, we send that individual back out again. And what they do is they make sure they they verify off our one call ticket that everybody has either put a clear all clear in or they are marked out on our our routes, you know, and um this way that guy if if we're missing a locate from power or whatever, we can get that called in and get them back out there. Our goal is to have everything located when our crew arrives on site that you know what whatever day we're scheduled to get out there and start working. The last thing you need is a crew sitting there for a couple hours being nonproductive. And you know, you don't want them to tell you don't want to tell them take go just get going cuz now you're taking a chance with damage uh injuries, things like that. You know, I've I've seen what can happen if you hit, you know, a big power line or a gas main. I've seen all that. You know, I've experienced it. So, you know, you you you learn from your mistakes in the past.

So, Greg, I enjoy talking to you and I appreciate all of the extra effort that you go through. You know, again, being a retired locator and being with Julie for now 13 years, it's something that we constantly push and try to educate people on. Is it are you saving money and time and energy by pre-marking prior to this? That's the big question.

Definitely saving money and time and uh possible injuries to our our crews. You know, you have a three, four person union crew sitting on a job site waiting two, three hours for locates to be completed. Um you're not no productivity. Um just the cost of labor hours alone, you know, for having those guys sitting there waiting. So, having all this pre-marking that we have in place, we feel that it has definitely saved us money. Um our jobs are more successful, we're more productive and you know, that doesn't mean we don't come across anything out in the field after even though we go and do all this due diligence for our job sites, but you know, we our crews we I think it's really big. You you know you you have to promote it from the very top of the company and set the example down into the field right um I can't sit at my my office and say do this to that somebody's face and then go out in the field and say what are you waiting for you know just get going they they're the ones that are you know they should have been here you know I you can't do that it's not safe um you're not you're not getting your company buy in with all your crews. We have, like I was telling you earlier about all the labor that we have out in the field each day, they have such a questioning attitude. So, if they get out in the field and they see something that's not right, they're not afraid to call and get answers to those things. Um, but yeah, to answer your question it saves so much money doing all this, we feel absolutely.

All right, the last question here. Can you give you've got so many good tips. What would you say to somebody who's wanting to improve their pre-marking process?

Uh to improve I would you know you you go a little bit above and beyond. Um, you know, if you're a responsible contractor, you know, there are so many little things that you can do with this pre-marking. Uh, you know, you're you're putting those calling cards, those uh door hangers on people's homes, taking uh video and pictures of before the crews arrive and after the locates are down. Uh, so it just the the little things that you can do to help your crew always in the back of my mind is the crew's safety. That's what I focus on every day, every night. You know, the last thing I want is a phone call saying we damaged something. Uh, we hurt somebody, one of our folks got hurt. Um, and it's just you do these extra little things and and you can eliminate all that.

Yeah, that pre-work is just as important as the actual work.

Yes, sure is. It sure is. So, and then these guys, they get out in the field and uh when they're assigned on their schedule what job they're going to, they know that job's ready for them. You know, they they know what's got to be done. They don't have any worries. Um, and like I said, when I started in the field and I came up through all this stuff, there were days that I watched I sat out on jobs and I sat there for 4 hours waiting for a single locator to show up because he might have been on an emergency call out and couldn't leave it, you know. Uh, so I've experienced it all and I just try and learn from my mistakes.

So, well, Greg, thank you so much for your time today and your expertise. Uh, Brian, thank you for being here as well. Appreciate that. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to this episode of Julie's Toolbox Talks podcast. If you want to learn more about Julie, visit juliebeforyoudig.com. You can check out all the resources that are available to support safe digging. And that's for whether you're a homeowner, a contractor, or a utility professional. Until next time, stay safe and remember, safe digging is in your hands.