Technique for screening work requests

Details Technique for screening work requests Technique for screening work requests

1999-04-08

2001-01-02

Blum, Theodore M. (Department: 3662)

Communications: directive radio wave systems and devices (e.g.,

Directive

Including a satellite

C701S208000

Utility Patent

active

06169517

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a technique for enabling an entity to screen a request for work to determine whether work will occur at a site is sufficiently close in proximity to the location of one of the entity's facilities such that the work may damage the facility.
BACKGROUND ART
Most utilities, such as those that provide electric, water, gas or telephone service, bury their conveyances (i.e., pipes and cables) underground both for reasons of safety and esthetics. For example, AT&T as a provider of telecommunications services, maintains a network of some 50,000 miles of buried optical fiber cable installed in a variety of environments. AT&T's network of buried optical fiber runs under city streets, rural farmland, and along other public and private rights of way. Although burial does protect such optical fiber cables from the elements, such buried cables, as well as other underground conveyances, do remain vulnerable to damage from excavation by contractors.
In many areas, governmental regulations require that contractors seeking to excavate first contact a central agency, often referred to as a “One-Call Center,” prior to undertaking excavation. Personnel at the center forward such contractor work requests to those entities that maintain buried cables within the region served by the center. Each entity screens the work request to determine whether the work anticipated by the contractor will actually occur sufficiently close to that entity's underground conveyances to require dispatching personnel to physically locate and mark such buried conveyances. Each year, One-Call Centers in the United States process numerous requests, so an entity that maintains buried conveyances must devote significant personnel and resources to perform the location and marking of buried conveyances.
Some One-Call Centers do a better job of screening work requests than others. For example, some centers will report work requests with out regard to boundaries, while others will screen works requests within boundaries, thus avoiding sending such requests to entities that lack buried conveyances within the specified boundary. However, even screening of work requests based on a specified boundary has its limits. Often the boundary specified in the work request may lack sufficient accuracy for an entity that maintains buried conveyances to rely on a general comparison between the specified boundary data and the entity's own conveyance location records for screening purposes. For this reason, most entities that maintain buried conveyances, such as AT&T, often take a “better safe than sorry” attitude and usually dispatch technicians to mark and locate, even though making and locating may not have been necessary.
Thus, there is a need for a technique for more accurately screening work requests.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, the present invention provides a method for use by an entity, such as a utility or the like, that maintains facilities, such as buried conveyances, to screen work requests such as from contractors seeking to perform work in close proximity to a facility to determine whether the work may cause damage to such facility. In accordance with the invention, the entity first receives a work request that identifies the site at which the work will occur. Thereafter, the entity receiving the work request establishes the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) coordinates corresponding to site where the work will occur. In some instances, the work request will include the GPS coordinates of the work site so the entity receiving the work request need only read the GPS coordinates from the request. For example, a contractor may make the work request with the aid of a special wireless telephone that includes an integral GPS receiver that automatically provides the GPS coordinates to the screening entity. When the GPS coordinates are not present in the work request, the entity will establish the GPS coordinates, either from a map, or a database that such coordinates for different locations. Once the GPS coordinates corresponding to the work site are established, then the GPS work site coordinates are compared to the GPS coordinates of each facility to determine whether the work site is sufficiently close to a facility to warrant concern.

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