TORONTO FIRM WINS SAFETY KUDOS

FER-PAL Earns Excavator of the Year Award, 2006
MARY BAXTER, DAILY COMMERCIAL NEWS
March 2, 2007

FER-PAL Earns Excavator of the Year Award, 2006

Hitting a buried hydro cable is something you don’t easily forget. 

“There was a spark,” Rick Trinetti recalled of the incident that happened in Toronto more than 20 years ago. “We knocked out (the electricity in) an apartment building.”

For Trinetti, who was just starting out in the family contracting business, the incident showed why it’s so important to call before you dig, something he hadn’t done.

It was a lesson he took to heart and to this day, Rick and his brothers, Dan and Paul, make sure to call in the locations of their projects no matter how much time or paperwork it might involve.

This year, that safety-first attitude earned the Trinetti family’s business, Etobicoke-based Paddock Developments Ltd., the title of road builder excavator of the year from the Ontario Regional Common Grounds Alliance (ORCGA).

The asphalt and concrete contracting business was one of seven companies earning recognition this year from ORCGA, which brings together those who own underground facilities to promote safe excavation practices.

Others recognized in their industries included VJ McMullin Pipeline (gas), Kingston; Minto Homes (homebuilder), Ottawa; Safeline Utility Services (hydro), Beamsville (another two-time award winner); Lomco Ltd., Newmarket (landscaper); FER-PAL Construction Ltd. (sewer and water), North York; and Trinity Cable (telecommunications), Etobicoke.

Jim Douglas, executive director of the alliance, said the awards were established three years ago to recognize excavators’ safety efforts.

“Too often when things happen, the first stone is thrown at the excavator,” he said.

“We’re trying to help them by getting locates — quality locates — and we’re asking them to follow all the rules.”

“We need to recognize (their compliance). If we don’t, we’re falling short.”

Crediting his brother Dan for doing most of the work, Rick called winning the award an honour.

"Too often when things happen, the first stone is thrown at the excavator."

Jim Douglas
ORCGA

“We felt proud,” he said, noting it was the second year in a row the company had won the award.

At the same time, the brothers wonder “why we’re winning this award,” Rick said.

Their company is small. They work almost exclusively in Toronto and during peak summer months, employ at most up to 30 workers.

Larger companies would presumably handle a greater volume of work and therefore have a greater number of location calls, which begs the question “if other companies are doing their job.”

Douglas admits there’s a problem with excavators calling before they dig.

Doing so might be mandatory under two different pieces of provincial legislation, but it’s a cumbersome and time-consuming task.

He pointed out in Ontario alone, there are 600 below ground facility owners, which range from utilities and telecommunications operators to municipalities and other government agencies.

Of these, only 120 are represented in a provincial one-call system, a call centre that conveys a contractor’s project location to the companies that need to know.

“So you can see there’s a huge gap,” he said, where contractors “may have to make up to nine calls to get (clearances from) all the people you need.”

For this reason, the alliance is trying to convince the province to make belonging to the call system mandatory for all who own below ground facilities.

Such legislation is common in the U.S. where, in April, a countrywide three-digit damage phone number will go into service, he said.

Trinetti suggested adding more locators is also needed to reduce delays in conveying information to contractors. The wait can add days to a project, he said.

However, Douglas said response times are now generally good, although
adhering to the alliance’s target of delivering location information within four days is a challenge in peak periods.

The extent of the work being done also plays a role in how long it will take to obtain clearances, he added.

Provincial estimates show the number of hits has dropped to 3,619 in 2006 from 3,871 in 2005.

During the same period, however, the number of hits that were linked to a failure to obtain advance location clearance jumped by more than 300 to 1,364.

The number of calls received at the province’s one call centre, the amount of damages reported and whether, when damage is reported a location request had been placed, are all criteria used to determine award recipients, he said.