To accommodate the needs of our many members, there are several options relative to reporting damages and near misses as required under state statute.

If you are already using Common Ground Alliance’s (CGA) Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) or would prefer to enter your data through this interface you can use the Alabama Virtual DIRT link. If you haven’t registered with that system yet, you can also do that via the link.

If you prefer to enter your data directly to Alabama 811 using a simplified form, use the Alabama Underground Facility Damage Reporting Tool Form.

You may enter your individual damage or near miss information or upload your internal spreadsheet data at the links above. If you prefer to capture the data for an annual submission, and do not currently have a system in place to do so, you can utilize the Damage Reporting Spreadsheet to collect your data and submit it annually.

If you have your own spreadsheet or use the one provided (above), you may bulk upload here.

Section 37-15-9(c) of Alabama’s Underground Damage Prevention Law requires that:

“if an event damages any pipe, cable or its protective covering, or other underground facility, or there is a significant near miss that could have resulted in damage, the operator receiving the notice shall file a report with the “One-Call Notification System”. Reports must be submitted annually to the System no later than March 31 of the prior calendar year, or more frequently at the option and sole discretion of the operator. Each report must describe, if known, the cause, nature, and location of the damage.“

Damage is defined as including, but not limited to, the substantial weakening of structural or lateral support of an underground facility, penetration or destruction of any underground facility’s protective coating, housing or other protective device, and the severance (partial or complete) or of any underground facility, but does not apply to any operator’s abandoned underground facility.

A near miss is defined as an event where damage did not occur but a clear potential for damage was identified.

The purpose of the required damage reporting is to allow for a unified location for stakeholders to share essential detail about underground damage or near-miss incidents for use in determining root causes. These root causes and other data will be evaluated and used to develop and promote underground damage prevention education and training efforts.

The data received from Alabama 811’s damage reporting process will be uploaded annually into the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) DIRT program to be used in developing the national DIRT (Damage Information Report Tool) Annual Report. Therefore, if you are reporting to Alabama 811, you do not need to enter your data into DIRT as well. Our form collects all the required DIRT information.