Ohio-based contractor, R. B. Jergens performs a wide variety of environmental and heavy civil construction projects, including a lot of public-domain projects for improvements to bridges and roadways.  They are well-versed in regulatory statutes for public utility locating requirements, but when a recent project landed them at the Cincinnati Airport, they called in Blood Hound to help mitigate risk for ALL underground utilities and structures.  What Vice President, Vic Roberts, PE discovered about Blood Hound's project deliverables will help their organization mitigate risk on even public projects, moving forward.

"Blood Hound made a utility drawing for us!  I’m impressed."  Roberts forwarded his deliverable notification email to colleagues with this sentiment.  As a long-time contractor and first-time Blood Hound customer, Roberts was unaware of the full scope of BHUG's capabilities - and the need for their services on select job sites, even after 811 locates are performed.  His review of project deliverables reaffirmed what he had concluded from his experience: BHUG locate technicians' advanced training and technologies could provide early detection of potential hazards and mitigate risks and liability on other high-risk projects performed by Jergens.

"We’re primarily a heavy highway contractor (roads and bridges).  And here, the utility locating responsibility is conferred to public owners...  But occasionally, the public agency, or rather their design engineer, fall short.  As contractors, this increases our risk unfairly.  But now, after seeing Blood Hound’s capabilities, we have a new option..."

There is no single answer to the question, "Whose job is it to schedule private locates on projects?"  That's why Blood Hound works to educate the public, utility owners, contractors and excavators about the difference between public and private utilities.  We want everyone to know enough that they feel empowered to ask, "Has anyone scheduled private locates?" before putting themselves, their crews or the other project partners at risk.

"...We can turn to Blood Hound rather than taking big risks.  We have a new partner when facing those challenges."

We are proud to serve companies like R. B. Jergens and look forward to sharing more stories like theirs, as we continue to spread knowledge about comprehensive safe digging, the differences between public and private utilities - and their associated risks.