As Underground Utility Damage Index Reaches Record High, Holding Back Disaster Opens for Preorder

New Routledge book connects federal policy, state law, utility operations, and public awareness across a nationwide infrastructure safety challenge

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Days after the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) reported that its national measure of excavation damage to buried utilities had reached a record high, preorders open today for Holding Back Disaster: Protecting Lives and Infrastructure Through Excavation Damage Prevention, a new Routledge book by damage prevention leader Scott Landes and Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure Executive Director Benjamin R. Dierker.

CGA's newly released 2025 Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) Data Summary & Trends places the CGA Index at 102 – above its original 2022 baseline of 100 and eight points above its 2023 score. Based on an analysis of 221,717 unique damage reports, CGA concluded that damages continue to increase alongside construction activity. The score represents the highest result under the current CGA Index and comes three years into the industry's effort to reduce excavation damages by 50 percent.

The Index is a modeled measure rather than a raw national damage count, and changes in methodology and voluntary reporting mean it should not be mechanically converted into the estimated totals published in older DIRT Reports. The historical sequence nevertheless provides important context: CGA reported that submitted and unique damage events reached all-time highs in 2019 and estimated approximately 532,000 U.S. damages; its later analysis found that damages had, at best, plateaued through 2021; and its 2022 report found evidence of another increase. When 2022 became Year Zero for the current Index at 100, the benchmark therefore began after several years already characterized by historic or rising damage – not after a return to a low-damage norm. The 2025 score of 102 now exceeds that starting point.

With 50 million miles of buried pipes, cables, and wires across the U.S., excavation damage is not unexpected. But every incident is preventable. CGA should be commended for tracking these statistics and helping the industry work toward avoiding every incident. The record-high Index provides the immediate backdrop for Holding Back Disaster, but it is only one part of the story the book tells.

Rather than presenting excavation damage as a narrow technical problem or the failure of a single stakeholder, Holding Back Disaster examines the complete system surrounding buried infrastructure protection. It connects national infrastructure investment and federal safety policy with state excavation laws, local public works, utility records, One-Call centers, locating capacity, construction contracts, project scheduling, workforce pressures, field practices, data quality, mapping, enforcement, risk management, and emerging technology.

"The record-high Index is an urgent signal, but one number cannot explain the system behind it," said Dierker. "Washington shapes infrastructure investment and oversight, while states, local governments, utilities, contractors, and field crews determine how protection works in practice. Holding Back Disaster brings those layers together."

"The book is not a single prescription," Dierker continued. "It provides essential context for better policy, training, operations, reporting, and public understanding – and should be required reading for anyone who sets, administers, follows, teaches, or explains the rules protecting underground infrastructure."

From Federal Policy to the Local Jobsite 

Protecting buried infrastructure is a national concern implemented through thousands of organizations and millions of individual interactions. Federal infrastructure spending, pipeline safety requirements, broadband policy, energy reliability, workforce programs, and transportation investment all influence how much excavation occurs and the standards governing portions of that work. Practical implementation, however, takes place through state-specific dig laws, state and regional One-Call systems, public utility commissions, and individual stakeholders on the ground.

Blending real-world incidents, historical development, policy analysis, expert perspectives, operational practices, and emerging technology, Holding Back Disaster is designed to be useful across that full system:

• Federal policymakers and regulators confronting infrastructure investment, pipeline safety, energy reliability, broadband deployment, workforce capacity, data quality, and intergovernmental coordination;
• State and local officials responsible for excavation statutes, enforcement, 811 administration, public works, water and wastewater systems, utility mapping, permitting, and emergency management;
• Utilities and practitioners, including excavators, locators, engineers, Subsurface Utility Engineering professionals, safety managers, risk professionals, contractors, insurers, and infrastructure owners;
• Journalists, educators, students, and the general public seeking an accessible explanation of the hidden systems beneath communities, the people who protect them, and the consequences when those systems fail.

The book serves simultaneously as an accessible introduction for those encountering damage prevention for the first time, a reference for experienced professionals, an onboarding and workforce-development resource, a classroom text, and a policy guide to the legal and institutional architecture surrounding excavation safety at the federal, state, and local levels.

Endorsed by Federal Policy and Infrastructure Leaders

Holding Back Disaster opens with a foreword by Mary E. Peters, the 15th U.S. Secretary of Transportation, who was serving as secretary when the national 811 number launched publicly in 2007. Its afterword is written by Robert "Bob" Kipp, CGA's founding president, who stepped down in 2017.

The book has earned praise from former federal officials and nationally recognized infrastructure policy leaders:

• DJ Gribbin, former Special Assistant to the President for Infrastructure Policy, calls it a "valuable resource for practitioners and policymakers alike."
• Neil Chatterjee, former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, says the book brings needed attention to "an often overlooked factor in infrastructure resilience and economic stability."
• Timothy P. Butters, former Acting Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, emphasizes its relevance to "life safety, protection of property, and critical infrastructure."
• Jeff Wiese, former Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety, says the book gives those new to damage prevention the grounding needed to understand the field and the serious consequences of infrastructure failures.

Additional endorsements come from leaders in law, public administration, emergency management, engineering, utilities, construction, locating, insurance, education, telecommunications, and infrastructure technology.

Holding Back Disaster releases on August 10, ahead of National 811 Day, the annual public reminder to contact 811 before digging.

Preorder Holding Back Disaster:
https://www.routledge.com/Holding-Back-Disaster-Protecting-Lives-and-Infrastructure-Through-Exca/Dierker-Landes/p/book/9781041351214

About Aii

The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure is an independent, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to infrastructure. Through research, education, and public engagement, Aii advances innovation across industry and public policy to improve the safety, efficiency, and resilience of our nation's infrastructure.

Media Contact:
Benjamin Dierker
[email protected]
(703) 574-7376

SOURCE Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure