Legislation

Trench Safety Stand Down Week June 14-18, 2021

NUCA of Indiana proposed a Proclamation to Governor Holcomb to designate June 14-18, 2021 as Trench Safety Stand Down Week. We thank all that participated!

Trench Safety Stand Down Week June 17-21, 2019

Exciting news! NUCA of Indiana proposed a Proclamation to Governor Holcomb to designate June 17 - June 21 Trench Safety Stand Down Week! A Safety Stand Down presents the opportunity for employers to talk directly to employees and others about safety. These Stand Downs focused on trench & excavation hazards and reinforced the importance of using trench protective systems and protecting workers from trenching hazards. This program is supported by OSHA. Thank you to all of those to participated, especially Atlas Excavating and HRP Construction!

Click here to see the interview from Atlas Excavating their local news channel! Thank you for being a part of NUCA of Indiana!

Washington Summit 2019

Here is a link to the new law that NUCA of Indiana greatly encouraged and supported.

Senate Bill 472 signed into law!

Design Ticket Notice became available July 1, 2017

Requests to locate underground utility facilities. Amends the statute concerning the locating and marking of underground utility facilities (Indiana's 811 law) to allow a person responsible for: (1) a construction project; or (2) any other project or operation; that will involve an excavation or demolition operation to provide a voluntary design information notice to the association known as the Indiana Underground Plant Protection Service (association) before commencing preliminary engineering studies or construction planning activities in the project area that will be affected by the excavation or demolition. Provides that a design information notice must be received by the association at Requests to locate underground utility facilities. Amends the statute concerning the locating and marking of underground utility facilities (Indiana's 811 law) to allow a person responsible for: (1) a construction project; or (2) any other project or operation; that will involve an excavation or demolition operation to provide a voluntary design information notice to the association known as the Indiana Underground Plant Protection Service (association) before commencing preliminary engineering studies or construction planning activities in the project area that will be affected by the excavation or demolition. Provides that a design information notice must be received by the association at least 10 full working days but not more than 20 calendar days before the commencement of the preliminary engineering studies or construction planning activities. Specifies the information that must be included in a design information notice. Provides that not more than two design information notices for the same project and from the same person or source may be submitted in any given 180 day period. Requires the association, upon receiving a design information notice, to: (1) notify each utility operator that has underground facilities located in the affected project area; and (2) provide the person serving the design information notice a list of the identified operators. Requires an operator, upon receiving notice of a submitted design information notice, to contact the person serving the design information notice within 10 days and do one or more of the following: (1) Provide a description of, and location information for, the operator's underground facilities in the affected project area. (2) Allow the person serving the design information notice to inspect, at a location acceptable to the operator, drawings or other records for the operator's underground facilities in the affected project area. (3) Designate with temporary facility markers the location of the operator's underground facilities within the affected project area. Allows an operator to reject a design information notice: (1) based on security considerations; or (2) if producing the required description of, or location information for, the operator's affected underground facilities would place the operator at a competitive disadvantage; pending the operator's verification of the legitimacy of the design information notice. Provides that the submission of a design information notice does not relieve a person responsible for the excavation or demolition operation involved in the project from providing the notice required under the law before commencing the excavation or demolition operation. Removes a provision in the statute that requires a county recorder who receives an inquiry from a person seeking to provide the required notice of an excavation or demolition to refer the person to the association

Past Legislation Events

2018 Washington Summit was attended by David Howell (Midwest Mole) and Kurt Youngs (Youngs Excavating). They met with both Senators Joe Donnelly and Todd Young and all 9 Congressmen and Congresswoman's offices meeting with many of the Representatives themselves. This years topics included:

Infrastructure financing

Congress must include water and wastewater funding in any infrastructure package.
Lawmakers need to take a comprehensive approach when writing laws to save costs and address multiple infrastructure needs simultaneously (such as H.R. 1670).
EPA estimates the total need for water infrastructure investment at $516B: $271B for clean water and $245B for drinking water.
The default rate for water infrastructure projects is less than 1%.

The more we invest now, the more sustainable investment will be in the future. Investing $1.00 in sewer systems and water infrastructure returns a full $2.03 in tax revenue to federal and state/local governments, of which $1.35 specifically accrues at the federal level

Workforce development and training

When infrastructure investment does occur and workloads increase, the shortage of qualified workers will worsen.
The federal government must invest in Career and Technical Education (CTE). Since 2007 CTE federal funding has declined 13%.

Congress must reauthorize the Perkins Act, which passed the House Education and Workforce Committee in July 2016, to reauthorize funding levels, streamline school-business collaboration, and provide flexibility for creating new training programs for in-demand fields

Fighting or reversing harmful regulation

Regulations should be implemented only to correct problems with an evidence-based, feasible, and necessary solution.
Lawmakers should introduce legislation to repeal or substantially alter OSHA's Crystalline Silica Rule, which will cost the construction industry hundreds of millions.
Any "Buy American" regulation should be workable, and the review and waiver processes must be easily navigated and swift.