Ground Disturbance Awareness

Ground Disturbance Awareness is for everyone who works where the ground is opened, on leases, pipeline rights-of-way, construction sites and city streets across Canada, and for the supervisors who plan that work. It covers what counts as a ground disturbance, what can be buried below (pipelines, flowlines, power, gas, water, sewer and communication lines), and why a strike can injure or kill. It walks through what happens before the dig: the locate request, marker posts, locate marks and their colours, the locate sheet, the controlled area and the hand-dig zone, and why the dig distances come from your jurisdiction's rules. It covers digging near a buried facility: hand exposing and hydrovac, following the line, and keeping a spotter. It also covers excavation and trenching: why trench walls collapse, sloping, benching, shoring and trench boxes, ladders and safe access, spoil piles and edges, water, and hazardous atmospheres in the hole. It ends with what to do after a strike, a gas release or a cave-in. You sort jobs that are a ground disturbance from ones that aren't, find six signs that something is already buried on a lease, match locate mark colours to what they mark, find answers on a locate sheet, make the calls as a crew trenches across a gas flowline, judge which trenches are more likely to cave, match each job to the right protection, find the hazards around a boulevard trench, and decide what happens when a service line is hit and a wall gives way. You check your understanding after each module and finish with a 25-question exam. Pass with 80% and your certificate is issued right away, valid for 36 months. Every screen is narrated, with captions and a full transcript, and links to TruStar's free ground disturbance calculator for the zones in your province. This course provides general awareness training about ground disturbance and excavation. It is not Ground Disturbance Level I (101) or Level II (201) and does not replace them. It does not replace a locator's training, the facility owner's requirements, or your employer's procedures.