Behind the engagement framework — the field team that runs it
SureTrace is a private-utility-consulting and training practice built from the locator side of the industry — not the planning side. Three decades inside the field means every SureTrace engagement is scoped against the same standards your crews actually work under, not the ones a brochure would prefer to name.
Austin Burnaman, Founder | Utility Locating & Damage Prevention Consultant
SureTrace field operations · serving contractors and municipal owners
Austin Burnaman is a Utility Locating and Damage Prevention Consultant providing accurate, safety-focused support for underground infrastructure projects. He has hands-on field experience locating and documenting gas, telecommunications, pipeline, and other private utilities — helping contractors, municipalities, and property owners identify risk and make informed decisions before excavation begins.
Austin's approach combines technical locating methods, including GPR support, total station mapping, and Vivax locating systems, with a strong focus on damage prevention and excavation safety. He also supports training and development for locating personnel, helping teams build the skills and consistency needed to reduce damage incidents in the field.
- Private utility locating and underground infrastructure investigations
- Utility mapping and documentation using total station technology and electronic locating equipment
- Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) support and Vivax locating systems
- Damage investigations, field reporting, and digital documentation
- Damage prevention practices and excavation safety standards
- Training and support for utility locating personnel
The training and certifications that hold an engagement up
SureTrace engagements grade against published standards — not the "ten years of experience" copy that goes unqualified. Every credential below maps to a standard your reviewer or owner team can look up independently.
Site-safety credential aligned to 29 CFR 1926 — the standard your crews work under on utility or excavation projects.
General-industry safety credential covering the most-cited OSHA standards on utility and excavation sites.
Where the standards actually meet the work
Every SureTrace engagement runs through the three focus areas below. NULCA governs the locate side; OSHA 29 CFR parts (1926 and 1910) cover the work-side standards. The focus areas are where the two actually meet, on a real site.
Written safety programs, training rosters, and a citation-exposure inventory are pulled together before mobilization — so day-one on site moves straight to the field sweep, not paperwork.
Multi-method detect sweeps run on-site; ground-truth verification in the trench or pothole; deliverables mapped to ASCE 38-22 quality levels so a reviewer or owner team can step into the file and trust what they see.
Standard-by-standard read of the 29 CFR parts a utility engagement typically implicates — 1926.651/652, 1926.95, 1926.20/21, 1910.146, 1910.269 — with the citation patterns SureTrace has actually seen, not the catalog one.
Send the workload shape — get the engagement outline back
A short intake — site footprint, the standards in play, the pressure point — comes back as a phased engagement outline within two business days. Same senior field team that runs SureTrace engagements on the ground, same scope-boundary conversation every tier starts with.