By Gene Galin
Pittsboro, NC – Construction crews working around Pittsboro’s underground utilities face explicit instructions to stop after a utility strike, finish digging by 4 p.m., clear their sites by 5 p.m. and protect residents’ access under safety expectations outlined Monday by Development Services Director Maie Armstrong.
Leading an all-hands safety briefing and work plan review on November 2, Armstrong pressed contractors, utility representatives and supervisors to explain how they assess work sites, prevent damage and respond when something goes wrong. The approximately 35-minute session also exposed the complications beneath the streets: aging pipes, incomplete records, gas lines that curve away from surface markings and water repair crews stretched by competing emergencies.
“You go onto that site, you go home. You go home safely,” Armstrong told the gathering.
Her message extended to residents, motorists and the utility employees called out to repair damaged lines. Construction safety, she said, must protect everyone affected by the work, including people who never enter an excavation site.
The meeting followed a townwide stop-work order for Google Fiber construction. It brought together representatives associated with AT&T, Hyper Networks, Google and TriRiver.
Armstrong kept supervisors afterward to review permit-related matters and said she would tell them when construction could begin.
A briefing after repeated disruptions
Pittsboro announced Oct. 26 that it had halted Google Fiber construction following additional utility strikes associated with contractor Hyper Networks. The town identified a gas line break in Chatham Forest on Oct. 23, another gas line break there Oct. 26 and a water line break on East Street that same day.
The announcement said earlier incidents had already prompted corrective action notices and stop-work orders. The Nov. 2 meeting was scheduled to review incidents, compliance obligations and conditions for resuming construction.
In a separate Oct. 27 notice, the town reported that field inspections found unfilled holes, open vaults and cable left at construction sites. Hyper Networks crews were to clean up locations downtown and in neighborhoods ahead of Halloween activities and weekend events.
Monday’s discussion moved beyond those notices to the decisions crews make before, during and after digging. Armstrong asked supervisors to describe actual procedures rather than simply acknowledge that safety rules exist.
She also made clear that a company’s written policies would not substitute for trained employees following them in the field. If workers need additional training, she said, their employers must arrange it.
A strike means work stops
One of Armstrong’s strongest directions concerned the response to a utility hit: stop work and tell the rest of the team to stop.
She described the danger of overlapping incidents, particularly when water and gas infrastructure are damaged close together in time. A reduction in water pressure could complicate firefighting if a gas-related emergency developed, she explained.
Her concern was the combined effect of separate crews operating in the same community. A supervisor may know what happened at one location without knowing what another team has struck or which emergency resources are already committed elsewhere.
Armstrong said local fire and rescue capacity is limited and should not be overwhelmed by avoidable incidents. That made coordination necessary even when a crew believed its own work area was manageable.
A Hyper Networks representative described emergency procedures that included calling 911 and the gas company after a significant gas strike, stopping operations, clearing the site and following the direction of emergency responders and the utility.
For a water strike, the representative said work stops while the water provider and 811 are notified and repairs are completed. An AT&T-related representative said its procedures were essentially the same.
Earlier digging cutoff leaves time for repairs
The briefing settled on a 4 p.m. cutoff for digging and a 5 p.m. deadline for crews to finish cleaning up and leave.
Armstrong initially emphasized the 5 p.m. deadline, then agreed with a suggestion that excavation should end earlier. The distinction leaves time between the last digging activity and departure from the site.
That interval matters if a line is damaged late in the afternoon. Utility employees still need time to reach the location, assess the problem and begin repairs as daylight fades.
The discussion also linked darkness to traffic hazards. Equipment, roadside workers and temporary changes in travel lanes become harder for drivers to see as visibility declines.
Armstrong directed contractors to notify the town before closing a lane. Emergency services need to know about blocked routes, she said, and simultaneous work zones can sharply increase travel times.
A contractor asked whether a morning text could be used to report a planned closure. Armstrong identified herself and a town colleague, Jeff, as contacts during the exchange.
The instruction placed advance communication alongside cones and signs as part of managing the work area. A lane closure affects the broader road network, even when the construction itself occupies only a short stretch.
Supervisors asked to explain preparation
Armstrong walked participants through site assessments, utility locating, equipment inspections, traffic controls, first aid and emergency planning.
An AT&T-related representative described reviewing a job in advance, checking utility markings, looking for hazards and walking the work with crews or subcontractors. Follow-up inspections, the representative said, are used to identify problems that must be corrected before the work is signed off.
Another participant explained that subcontractors mark proposed work areas with white paint before utility locating. That process also gives workers an opportunity to walk the route and inspect conditions.
Armstrong asked which utility contacts contractors use and how they confirm that existing fiber and other facilities have been addressed. Her questions emphasized that several different systems may occupy the same roadside corridor.
She also asked who serves as the trained person responsible for inspecting conditions. One representative said foremen and supervisors had received training.
The exchange highlighted a practical test for any safety plan: whether the person directing the work can identify the hazards, knows whom to call and can explain how the crew will protect nearby utilities before equipment starts moving.
Hand digging can still damage gas lines
An Enbridge damage prevention specialist devoted a substantial portion of the briefing to a less obvious risk: a worker can follow the instruction to use hand tools and still cut a gas line.
The specialist said reports and photographs of two recent strikes associated with Hyper indicated that the damage occurred while workers were trying to expose gas lines with shovels. In one instance, he said, a large tree root lay over the pipe.
He used a shovel to demonstrate why blade direction matters. Workers exposing a line should keep the blade parallel to its route, he said, rather than drive the blade across it.
“It is much easier to cut the line perpendicular than it is parallel,” he explained.
He also cautioned that a shovel capable of penetrating hard ground can damage a utility. Hand tools reduce certain risks but do not eliminate the need for care, supervision and sound technique.
His account offered a possible explanation for particular strikes based on material he had reviewed. It was not presented as a final investigative finding assigning responsibility for every incident discussed at the meeting.
The specialist urged contractors to reinforce those techniques with subcontractors and inspect how the employees actually exposing lines perform the work.
Surface markings have limits
The gas discussion also addressed the difference between a painted mark and the precise position of a buried pipe.
The Enbridge specialist said plastic gas mains expand and contract with temperature changes and may be installed with bends rather than as perfectly straight runs. Locators mark the tracer wire, he explained, and a straight series of marks does not guarantee a perfectly straight pipe.
“Just because the marks are straight, that does not mean the pipe is straight,” he said.
That distinction becomes especially important when a contractor drills parallel to a gas main. A crew may maintain what appears to be a consistent distance from the markings while the actual pipe curves closer to the excavation.
North Carolina 811 describes the tolerance zone as the width of the facility plus 24 inches horizontally on each side. Its published explanation also notes that 811 does not have utility-depth information and that depth can vary because of installation conditions, grade changes, erosion and other factors.
The law reproduced by NC811 includes visual identification requirements before certain mechanized excavation within that zone and calls for identifying facilities at intervals no greater than 50 feet during parallel excavation there.
Clearance matters during drilling and pullback
Participants discussed risks that remain after a drill first passes a utility.
The Enbridge specialist described a strike that occurred when a bore head was being pulled back. He said contractors need to maintain separation throughout the process, including that return movement.
He identified at least 12 inches of separation between gas facilities and another utility as an expectation in his discussion. Elsewhere, a contractor described maintaining two feet of separation when asked about protecting exposed lines during fiber work. Those statements concerned their respective procedures and should not be treated as a single universal clearance standard for every installation.
Another gas representative warned against directional boring directly over a gas pipe and said he would seek to stop such work if his employees reported it.
The speakers also emphasized cooperation. The damage prevention specialist said he had worked with Hyper over several years and appreciated the coordination and responsiveness he had experienced.
His criticism focused particularly on quality control among subcontractors. Workers often know the correct practices, he said, but shortcuts or stressful conditions can interrupt that routine. The challenge for supervisors is making sure field performance matches the training employees have received.
Older infrastructure complicates locating
A TriRiver Water representative who supervises locators described a problem familiar in older communities: some buried infrastructure is poorly documented or unknown to current employees.
If a line has not recently been exposed and recorded, he said, it may be missing from geographic information systems and construction plans. Some plastic lines lack usable tracer wire. In other cases, wire continuity may have been broken during earlier work.
Without a reliable locating signal or accurate records, identifying a route can become an educated estimate, the representative said.
He encouraged contractors to establish direct contact with locators and their supervisors, particularly when markings appear incomplete or inconsistent with conditions in the field. He offered his own contact information because the primary Pittsboro locator was away.
The discussion underscored why an apparent absence of markings does not necessarily settle whether a utility is present. It also showed why a questionable locate needs attention before construction advances.
TriRiver personnel encouraged potholing – exposing a utility at selected locations to establish its position – and direct communication when uncertainties arise. Their comments described limits in the information available to crews; they did not resolve responsibility for individual strikes.
Water emergencies force difficult priorities
A TriRiver construction representative explained what happens when several damaged lines compete for the same repair crews.
The service area extends from Chapel Hill through Pittsboro to Moncure. Crews may already be repairing a leak when another call arrives.
Describing the preceding Friday, the speaker said employees working on a damaged 2-inch line were reassigned to a raw-water-related problem because of the larger consequences for the system.
“At this point we’re triaging,” the representative said.
The speaker contrasted three customers without water with a situation involving roughly 4,000 customers and a plant unable to run. The account illustrated the scale used to set repair priorities; the briefing did not provide a separate, documented outage timeline establishing the precise duration or customer impact of that incident.
The representative also described the human cost of emergency response. Employees normally assigned to a first shift can remain on duty for repairs lasting through the night, then face additional calls the following day.
By that point, the speaker said, fatigue becomes another safety concern. A delayed arrival at one site may reflect a crew finishing a more urgent repair elsewhere, rather than an absence of effort to respond.
Sewer damage may surface after crews leave
TriRiver personnel warned that the consequences of drilling are not always immediately visible.
A damaged sewer service can become apparent later, when waste accumulates and a customer experiences a backup. A fiber conduit passing through a sewer service line, the construction representative said, may be discovered only after the installation crew has moved on.
In those circumstances, the utility’s risk management process can become involved, especially if sewage backs into a home.
The representative also asked contractors to leave contact information for someone available after hours following a strike. During repairs, utility crews may find a new conduit blocking access to the damaged pipe.
The speaker described the choice between enlarging an excavation, moving the obstruction or taking other steps needed to restore service. A reachable contractor gives repair crews a chance to coordinate before making a decision that could damage the new installation.
Stormwater structures add another complication. The representative said water lines can change depth substantially to pass around or beneath large drainage pipes. A depth established at one point therefore may not describe the route farther along, particularly near a crossing.
Residents need notice and clear access
Armstrong told contractors that communicating with homeowners must continue beyond an initial door hanger.
A representative said notices generally go out about a week ahead, sometimes two weeks, as proposed work areas are marked. Armstrong asked for a further reminder within roughly two days of crews actually arriving.
Residents need a usable indication of when work will occur, she said, rather than a broad window that leaves them guessing.
She also instructed crews to keep driveways accessible and avoid using residents’ property for parking or material storage. Any situation requiring a crossing or affecting access needs a separate conversation with the homeowner.
Sidewalks and routes people use to enter and leave properties must remain clear. Materials should be kept orderly from the time they arrive, Armstrong said.
These directions addressed the ordinary consequences of construction as well as emergency risks. A project can disrupt daily life through blocked access, misplaced materials or uncertainty about when workers will arrive, even without a utility strike.
Armstrong’s expectations required supervisors to consider those effects as part of managing the site, alongside protecting pipes, keeping workers visible and controlling equipment movements.
Protective equipment and consequences
Armstrong said she had seen workers without required personal protective equipment twice and did not want to see it again.
She told supervisors to check employees after lunch as well as at the start of the day. Workers without appropriate equipment would be asked to leave, she said, and she encouraged morning toolbox safety meetings where they were not already occurring.
Her reminders covered moving machinery, spotters, safe vehicle access and the danger of employees crossing roads unpredictably. A spotter, she said, should remain in position rather than repeatedly run back and forth through traffic.
She cited a previous incident involving a vehicle that left the roadway and overturned into a parking area as an example of how quickly roadside conditions can change.
At the close, Armstrong required participants to sign an acknowledgment of the safety discussion and convey the information to their employees. Another strike, she said, would trigger another briefing to review what happened.
She also warned that failing to follow safety rules could mean being sent home and, in cases involving negligence, losing permission to work in town. The meeting did not detail the formal procedures for imposing or contesting those restrictions.
What happens next
The public briefing ended with supervisors remaining behind for a review of permit matters. Armstrong said construction could begin when she provided authorization, leaving the restart decision outside the portion of the meeting available in the transcript.
The next test is whether the instructions are consistently applied: earlier excavation cutoffs, verified utility information, accessible emergency contacts, protected work areas and timely notice to residents.
The discussion made clear that preventing disruptions will require attention from contractors and utilities alike. Accurate locating, careful excavation and responsive supervision must work together, particularly where older infrastructure complicates the job.
Armstrong’s final expectation was straightforward: crews should finish the day safely, and the people living and working around them should be able to do the same.
“No exceptions,” she said.
Residents can review the full briefing and watch town announcements for construction updates. Pittsboro’s stop-work notice directs people with construction concerns to call 919-542-4621 and ask for Development Services or Public Works.