Get Ready for the Ground Disturbance 101 Standard

By Joey Motokado

The Training Standards Committee’s (TSC) Ground Disturbance 201 Standard has been acknowledged by industry for years, providing assurance that supervisory-level ground disturbance training content is consistent, accurate, and includes the appropriate minimum content. Although this standard is effective, it’s also comprehensive, and designed for those providing guidance, direction to others, issuing or receiving permits or checklists, supervising, or creating a ground disturbance without supervision—it’s not designed for lower-level workers.

Keeping this in mind, the TSC has drafted the Ground Disturbance 101 Standard! The Ground Disturbance 101 Standard is intended to provide the necessary information for workers who participate in ground disturbance activities under supervision. This standard’s training content places an emphasis on content that a worker needs to know, such as:

• Worker rights and obligations
• Causes and consequences of damage
• Hazards and hazard assessment
• How to submit a locate request to the One-Call Centre
• The locating and marking process, and 
• Hand exposure

The Ground Disturbance 101 Standard is currently in its final stage of development: the validation process. The TSC validates training standards to ensure that programs can achieve the desired knowledge transfer and be successfully audited. This is important to confirm that content can be delivered in anticipated timeframes. Both an instructor-led training program and an online training program will undergo this process. 

Appropriate training is critical for any worker, regardless of role or industry. The Ground Disturbance 101 Standard will fill a gap and provide the training that a ground disturbance worker needs.