Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance

The Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) is an organization promoting efficient and effective damage prevention for Ontario's vital underground infrastructure. Through a unified approach and stakeholder consensus, ORCGA fulfils its motto of "Working Together for a Safer Ontario". We are a growing organization with over 450 organizations as active members and sponsors, and represent a wide cross section of stakeholders including: Oil & Gas Distribution Equipment & Suppliers Landscape/Fencing Transmission Pipeline One-Call Telecommunications Road Builders Insurance Excavator Safety Organization Regulator Municipal & Public Works Homebuilder Locator Electrical Distribution Engineering Land Surveying Railway Electrical Transmission For over a decade these stakeholder groups have been active in promoting "Call Before You Dig" and other good damage prevention practices through smaller separate entities which have come together and amalgamated under the ORCGA name to provide a single voice representing the damage prevention community in the province. he ORCGA has been a regional chapter of the Common Ground Alliance based in Alexandria, VA since April 2003. The ORCGA has developed these Best Practices through the commitment and consensus of its members working together towards a safer Ontario. his version published June 2014 is the eighth publication and is an ongoing effort to develop new and improve existing practices. These practices represent a dynamic statement of the type of activities that ORCGA believes would provide optimum levels of diligence towards preventing damage to underground infrastructure. ot all stakeholders are presently in a position to adopt all of these practices, however, it is anticipated that progression will be made towards following the practices over time. Within this version, we have stated the date at which a Best Practice was introduced (i.e. New), modified (ie. Revised), or rewritten to a standard format (i.e. Reformatted). f not otherwise stated, the Best Practice has existed in its existing form since the initial publication of the Best Practices in 2004. he dates reflect the month in which the Best Practice was agreed upon by the ORCGA Board of Directors.Additionally, the 2014 Best Practices contains a Glossary of Terms which defines terms within the Best Practices document for ease of use.