Fiber Optic lines within approximately 30 feet of an underground facility can detect and identify unique vibration signatures in the area, some of which represent excavation activity. Once excavation activity is detected, an alert is sent to Texas811. Texas811 queries its ticket database to determine if there is an active ticket at the location. If yes, the incident is recorded for regulatory purposes, but is not sent to the facility operator. If there is not an active one-call ticket, an alert is sent to the facility operator with the type of excavation, manual or mechanical, and the exact GPS location notifying them of the unauthorized excavation activity and the incident is recorded for regulatory purposes.
The Fiber Optic Sensing software detects unique vibration signatures near a protected underground facility that it recognizes as excavation activity and sends a notification to Texas811 regarding the detected excavation activity.
The notification is compared to the Texas811 ticket database to determine if there is an active one-call at the location of the detected excavation activity. If there is an active one-call ticket, no further action is taken.
If there is not an active one-call ticket, Texas811 sends an alert to the facility operator notifying them of unauthorized excavation activity near their protected underground facility. The alert is sent electronically or verbally to the facility operator including the type of excavation, manual or mechanical, as well as GPS coordinates of the detected activity.
The facility operator responds to the excavation site to intervene before damage occurs.
