Pipeline Group offers program for contractors

The Pipeline Group's annual "Public Education Contractor Awareness Program" will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Holiday Inn North, 2720 N. Glenstone.

The program is sponsored by a group of companies with a common goal: preventing accidents and damages to underground pipelines and utilities.

A free dinner will be catered by the Holiday Inn for all persons involved in excavation-related activities in Christian, Dade, Greene, Polk and Webster counties.

Following the meal, a brief safety program will be presented, stressing the importance of accident prevention by identifying pipeline and utility rights of way, use of one-call systems and the importance of working with pipeline and utility companies to safely excavate in the vicinity of underground facilities.

Sponsors, which include Conoco Pipe Line Co., Explorer Pipeline Co. and Williams Gas Pipelines Central, will provide promotional materials, including notification information for their companies, safety brochures and other safety reminders.

Each year, people are injured and lives lost, and millions of dollars in repairs and lost products are incurred because of third-party incidents someone digging into a pipeline.

Thousands of communications may be disrupted when expensive fiber-optic cables are damaged or severed. These types of excavation can be financially devastating to the responsible party. This safety program is an attempt to help those who do excavation work avoid such situations.