CGA Releases 2024 DIRT Report Findings, Highlights Need for Industry Improvements
The Common Ground Alliance (CGA) recently published its 2024 Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) Report and, well, it’s not looking too good. The association said its latest analysis revealed that the CGA Index, which measures year-over-year damage trends, rose from 94.0 in 2023 to 96.7 in 2024. This unfortunately signals that the industry is moving in the wrong direction in reducing damages to buried utilities despite organization-level success stories and sector-specific improvements.
According to the press release, the annual DIRT Report provides the most comprehensive accounting of damages to buried power, water, fiber, natural gas and other utility lines in the U.S. and Canada. The CGA said this year’s report analyzed 196,977 unique damage reports from 2024 and found that the industry is not on track to meet its “50-in-5” goal of reducing damages by 50 percent over five years.
“The 2024 DIRT Report makes it clear: Incremental change is not enough,” said CGA president and CEO Sarah K. Magruder Lyle. “We know what works — effective, balanced enforcement, accurate mapping and timely locates — but without coordinated investment and accountability across all stakeholders, damages will continue to rise alongside ever-increasing construction activity. The stakes for public safety, service reliability and economic productivity are simply too high to accept the status quo.”
CGA Shares Root Causes That Drive Damages
One key part of the 2024 DIRT Report included the top 10 root causes of reported damages. These causes accounted for 85 percent of all reported damages with patterns remaining remarkably consistent year-over-year. The report pointed out that utility work particularly water/sewer and telecommunications/CATV, dominated nine of the top 10 root causes. The association said this underscores the need for targeted, sector-specific interventions.
CGA shared that the leading causes were:
- Failure to notify 811 (24.54%)
- Excavator failed to maintain clearance after verifying marks (16.07%)
- Facility not marked due to locator error (11.94%)
- Marked inaccurately due to locator error (8.58%)
- Improper excavation practice not listed elsewhere (6.75%)
- Excavator dug prior to verifying marks by potholing (4.94%)
- Facility not marked due to no response from operator/contract locator (4.71%)
- Excavator failed to shore excavation/support facilities (3.27%)
- Marks faded, lost or not maintained (2.17%)
- Facility not marked due to incorrect facility record/map (2.16%)
“The CGA Index tells us that damages are tracking with construction activity — not with the improvements we know are possible,” said Louis Panzer, executive director of North Carolina 811 and co-chair of CGA’s Data Reporting and Evaluation Committee. “The solutions are in front of us. What’s needed now is the will to implement them at scale, across every sector and with consistent accountability.”
Want even more info from the report? Click here for the complete 2024 DIRT Annual Report, as well as the Interactive Dashboard featuring data from 2022-2024.
Pam Kleineke is managing editor of Compact Equipment.
