b'UTILITY LOCATESIMPROVING ONTARIOSLOCATES SYSTEMBY MATTHEW BRADFORDOntario One Call has the potential to be of greater benefit to contractors, with a few crucial tweaksU tility locates are anYou might have six different essential, and unavoid-able, part of sewer and watermain projects. Given shortcomings within the Ontario One Call process, however, locates can also be a source of on-site delays, confusion and frustration. subcontractors on the same job all submitting the same There is no shortage of opinionslocate requests because One about Ontarios One Call locatesCall only lets you put in one system. By and large, however,name on the form there is an understanding that the program can be of greaterPeter Smith,benefit to contractors with a fewHeavy Construction Association crucial tweaks.of Toronto The first tweak, says Steve Tamas,The call for locate service providers Project Manager with Rankin(LSPs) to fill their ranks is being Construction, is simply ensuringThere need to be penaltiesmade across the industry. As the system is well-staffed, whichto locate providers forMark Van Bree, Owner of Birnam is currently not always the case:late locates. Without realExcavating, notes, Theres just There just doesnt seem to beenforcement, theresnot enough of them. Id estimate enough staff to fulfill requests fornothing really incentivizingthey have enough staff to handle locates, which is leading to a lot ofonly half of the requests coming in. late locates. LSPs to keep the processThey need to double up, but were moving along at the speedjust not seeing that happen. contractors need Steve Tamas, THE NAME GAMERankin Construction Perceived staffing deficiencies aside, one of the more common issues with Ontarios locates system is its seeming lack of flexibility. The construction industry isCurrently, only one contractors based on schedules. If we doname can be placed on the locates not complete a project in time,request, and this limitation can we are fined. By enforcinglead to situations in which multiple compliance with monetarystakeholders are submitting the same requests for the same job. fines, locators will need to complete locates on timeYou can imagine where that Tony DiPede, causes issues, says Peter Smith, North Rock Group Executive Director of the Heavy Construction Association of Toronto. Say you have a road 34 H 2 OSWCAWinter/Spring 2020'