Public Utility Locating & 811 Damage Prevention

Public Locating

Reliable 811 locating support for utilities, municipalities, and infrastructure owners.

BESS Utility Solutions provides trained field locating professionals to help utility owners protect underground infrastructure, meet locate-response obligations, and keep excavation projects moving.

Bess Utility Solutions in California - Gas Transmission, Mojave, CA

A trusted extension of your team

Managing an internal locating operation requires:

Trained personnel

Equipment

Vehicles

Dispatch

Quality control

Consistent response as volume changes

BESS can supplement or replace portions of that workload with an experienced locating team and a defined ticket-management process.

Built for public infrastructure owners

01

Utilities

Investor-owned and cooperative utilities

02

Municipalities

Cities, counties and special districts

03

Public works

Streets, storm drain and street lighting

04

Telecom & fiber

Carriers and fiber network builders

05

Water

Water agencies and districts

06

Gas

Distribution and transmission operators

07

Electric

Distribution and underground electric

Own or operate other underground facilities?

Talk to our team →

01

Ticket

811 tickets are received and triaged by priority, due date and facility type.

02

Dispatch

Tickets are routed to the nearest qualified locator to meet the legal start date.

03

Locate & mark

Facilities are located and marked to APWA color code and your standards.

04

Positive response

Status is posted back to the one-call system so excavators know it is clear to proceed.

05

Reporting

Photos, notes and ticket records are documented and reported to your team.

Locating and marking across every facility type you own

Bess Utility Solutions - Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

Facilities we locate

Electric

Gas

Telecom / fiber

Water

Sewer

Other contracted facilities

811 ticket-based locating and marking

Municipal and utility facility locating

Electric, gas, telecom/fiber, water and sewer locating

Overflow and supplemental locating

Dedicated project and managed locating support

Priority and emergency response capabilities, subject to contract

Locate documentation, reporting and quality control

Advanced locating support using electromagnetic locating, GPR and related technologies

Choose how much of the workload we carry

Select a model to see how it fits your program.

Full scope

Full outsourcing

Alongside your crew

Supplemental

Peak demand

Overflow

Programs

Managed / major projects

Full outsourcing

BESS takes on your locate program end to end: ticket intake, dispatch, field locating and marking, positive response and reporting, under your standards and service levels.

Best fit when

You want to exit an internal locating operation
Headcount, vehicles and equipment are a growing cost
You need one accountable partner for compliance records

Supplemental

Our locators work alongside your in-house team on a defined share of tickets, territories or facility types, so your staff can focus where they add the most value.

Best fit when

Your team covers most of the work but is stretched
Certain districts or facility types are hard to staff
You want steady, predictable added capacity

Overflow

On-call capacity for seasonal surges, storm recovery or construction booms, so response times hold when ticket volume spikes.

Best fit when

Ticket volume swings with the season
Late responses are a risk during peaks
You prefer to size your staff for average volume

Managed / major projects

Dedicated locating support for capital programs, fiber builds and large public works, with a project lead, set crew and reporting built around the schedule.

Best fit when

A large project needs locators on site daily
Multiple contractors are excavating at once
You need project-specific documentation

Six reasons utility owners partner with us

01

Experience

Decades of utility locating experience behind every crew we field.

02

Regional coverage

Offices in Hayward, Fresno, Orange, Sacramento and Phoenix keep response times short.

03

Technology

Electromagnetic locating, GPR and mapping tools for difficult facilities.

04

Responsiveness

A defined ticket process built around legal start dates and positive response.

05

Safety

Safety-first field practices that protect crews, the public and your assets.

06

Scalability

Capacity that flexes with ticket volume, from overflow to full outsourcing.

Locating technology matched to the utility

BESS pairs electromagnetic, GPR and acoustic detection tools with technicians trained through a dedicated in-house program.

Electromagnetic pipe and cable locators
Passive mode picks up signals on live conductors; active mode energizes metallic lines or tracer wire with a transmitter.

Ground penetrating radar
Detects both metallic and non-metallic utilities, including lines EM cannot trace.

Sonde locators
A small transmitter pushed through clay, concrete or PVC sewer, storm drain and conduit to trace non-conductive pipe.

Dedicated technical and safety trainer
A full-time trainer on staff and a personnel training and tracking system that flags re-certification.

Safety credentials you can
verify

BESS serves utility companies, cities, counties, municipalities and military installations under a qualified, audited safety program.

ISNetworld qualified, rated A
The BESS safety program holds a current A rating with ISNetworld.

OSHA confined-space entry
Certified confined-space-entry personnel in the field to meet OSHA requirements.

Maintenance of traffic
Field associates trained in intermediate and advanced traffic control for work in the right of way.

CPUC certified MBE/DBE
Certified MBE/DBE contractor serving California, Arizona and Nevada.

Documented deliverables
Results from ground markings to PDF reports with line overlays, CAD drawings or geo-referenced aerial imagery.

View our safety certifications →

Built on locating experience

BESS brings decades of utility locating experience and an established subsurface-services platform to public damage prevention. Our capabilities extend beyond routine locating to private utility locating, GPR, vacuum excavation, utility mapping and other services that can help resolve complex field conditions.