Ron Laidman, Principal Advisor, Enertia
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| Ron Laidman |
The consortium of shallow infrastructure owners officially launched the Alternate Locate Provider Program (ALP) participant assessments in April. The ALP Program provides an alternative option for receiving locates by working directly with locate service providers. The ALP process is not mandatory and works in parallel with the standard One Call locate request process, which remains the default option for any locate request. USP is acting as a facilitator for the ALP Program for the consortium to ensure effective program oversight and consistent locate request processes are in place across all stakeholders.
It is expected that ALP locate requests will go live this summer, but in advance of that, the USP team has been working to finalize ALP processes, communicate ALP information to stakeholders, and also launching the Alternate Locate Service Provider (ALSP) assessment process. The ALSP assessment process is a multi-stage process that ensures any businesses performing ALP locates meet minimum safety, quality, and technical requirements required by the consortium prior to being permitted to perform locates. Any business looking to participate can request to be assessed and at the time of this article, 21 ALSP applicants are underway in the assessment process, many in the later stages of assessment and approval. Thus far, the majority of applicants have been locate service providers, but it is expected that as the program continues to grow, that excavators and other businesses involved in damage prevention will seek to participate as ALSPs as well. A key target for the program is to ensure there is sufficient choice in all regions of Alberta to be able to select an approved ALSP and perform ALP locates in a safe and timely manner.
In addition to businesses being approved as an ALSP, all individual locators working for an approved ALSP will be registered through USP as an ALP locator, ensuring that any locator that responds to an ALP locate request is qualified per the ALP Program requirements. The assessment for locators consists of completing a USP-endorsed training program and also being assessed as meeting minimum competency standards as specified in the ALP Program. At this time, no locators are registered, but there is a large backlog ready to go once ALSPs are approved.
The various stages of assessment involved in the ALP Program combined with consistent program oversight will serve to improve the quality and quantity of locating resources in Alberta, which ultimately will positively impact all stakeholders in excavation and damage prevention.