A journey of a thousand steps

KC Scout Utility Locators Chris Butler and York Morlan recently completed an impressive 146 locate tickets over a four week period. The utility work began at the west end of the Paseo along I-70 to the Blue River, including both the north and south sides of I-70. The locate tickets were for Trekk Design Group, who was recently awarded a design contract by MoDOT this past September. 

As these tickets were entered into the Missouri One Call System, both locators began the on-foot process of locating, marking, and linking all fiber and power connections that drive KC Scout devices. This effort involved walking the five miles of the corridor, carrying all the necessary equipment to perform the locates along terrain that is seldom level. 

KC Scout's two locators (Butler and Morlan) are primarily responsible for locating underground fiber and power connections along the metro KC Missouri right of way. It is their responsibility to place flags and paint the location of pull boxes and underground fiber and power connections that link KC Scout devices such as CCTVs and DMS, in order to avoid service interruptions caused by contractors.

"Scout's network of underground fiber and power is mission critical to the operation of our TMC in providing real-time traffic management information. Preventing any fiber or power outage due to construction is the prime responsibility of the locator team," explains KC Scout Manager Randy Johnson.

KC Scout is comprised of dedicated traffic safety professionals, all sharing one goal – to keep traffic in the metro moving smoothly and safely along metro roadways. Utility locators are on the frontline of mitigating problems that might arise as a result of a fiber or power outage. 

"We work as a two person team for safety and efficiency the majority of the time, but on occasion, we tackle select tickets individually," explains Utility Locator York Morlan.

The success of this completion is in addition to Morlan and Butler's normal daily tasks that include a daily flow of tickets that weren't related to the I-70 project. This position involves 40 hour work weeks with a shared 24/7 on-call status. According to Morlan and Butler, safety and teamwork is key to their success.

"Personally, I believe we both enjoy working outdoors and doing physically challenging work that improves our overall health. We look out for one another as we work alongside lanes of traffic and on occasion we report debris or disabled motorists as we encounter them. Our trucks are equipped with Emergency Lights but we often are working at a distance away from them and hope that motorists pay heed to us being on the roadside," says Utility Locator Chris Butler.

The teamwork demonstrated amongst this duo is exactly what KC Scout strives for every day. 

"There is nothing we can't do when we work together as a team," says Johnson.