Excavators in Texas have damaged pipelines more than 4,800 times since the beginning of 2026, frequently causing highly explosive gas leaks. That includes over 1,000 incidents in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties.
A KERA analysis of Railroad Commission of Texas “pipeline accident and incident reporting” data also found that many excavators had not contacted a notification center that arranges for the marking of underground utility lines free of charge.
Investigations into the cause of Thursday’s explosion at an Oak Cliff apartment complex that killed three are in the preliminary stages, but initial reports point to damage to a natural gas line and a possible leak.
Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Justin Ball has said that a fire engine had arrived within two minutes of a gas leak being reported. As the firefighters were going through standard set up procedures, the building exploded right before they were about to enter.
Atmos Energy told KERA in an email that the fire department had reported that “a construction crew unrelated to Atmos Energy damaged a natural gas pipeline near 409 E. 9th Street in Dallas." And the prospective purchaser of the apartment complex told KERA that her company had contracted with another company, Engineering Consultant Services, to provide a “geotech report,” which typically analyzes soil conditions, bedrock depth and groundwater levels.
Reports indicate that a boring rig damaged the pipeline. A damaged truck that appears to be a boring rig could be seen near the apartment complex after the explosion.
ECS told KERA in a statement that Texas 811 reported that utility locating was performed at the site before drilling was done. But the company also said its knowledge of the event is limited because none of its workers were there when the explosion happened.
Accidental damage to underground pipelines and utilities in Texas frequently can be attributed to one of two factors.
It can be difficult to determine the exact location of what may have been buried years — even decades — in the past. Even when excavators have followed the law and underground pipes have been marked, accidental strikes still happen.
And in many cases, excavators start digging without taking those precautions.
The Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act, often called the “call before you dig” law, requires excavators to notify the state's "One-Call Notification Center" at least 48 hours before digging so underground utilities can be marked. State law also requires both pipeline operators and excavators involved in underground pipeline strikes to report incidents.
“First and foremost…it’s the responsibility of anyone who's performing an excavation to make notification calls,” said Bryce Dubee, agency spokesperson for the railroad commission. “So for anyone who is going to be moving any type of earth near an underground pipeline or hazardous liquid or anything else like that, that that's the first step.”
Even homeowners are required to call the notification center two business days before they begin projects that involve digging. That includes even minor projects like building a fence, installing a mailbox, installing a sprinkler system or even planting a tree.
Railroad commission data shows the number of incidents per year spiked in 2022 and remained historically high in 2025. And while the number of incidents per 1,000 locates has decreased overall since 2008, it has been rising since 2022.
Salvatore Salamone is an engineering professor at the University of Texas who has done extensive research into pipeline safety. He says that when it comes to pipeline accidents excavation is a significant issue as lines are not always correctly located. He says one way to overcome this is to increase evaluations using non-destructive tools.
“Or using sensors to remotely locate and interrogate the pipelines,” Salamone said. “This is kind of a new technology that FEMSA and other agencies are looking in order to minimize this type of issue.”
But Salamone says this isn’t always an option on dig sites, especially when the pipe is a nontraditional material.
“There are a lot of construction sites,” Salamone said, “identification of these pipelines, mapping the location is going to be crucial. And most of the time, especially for pipelines which are not metallic... sometimes can be difficult to identify these underground pipelines.”
Just days before the apartment explosion in Oak Cliff, an excavator in McKinney damaged an Atmos Energy polyethylene plastic pipeline and there was a “release of product.” According to the damage reporting form on the incident, the excavator had contacted the notification center prior to digging, and had “potholed” the pipeline that had been marked. That term refers to carefully digging small test holes to confirm the location of underground pipes before beginning major excavating.
The excavator, who asked to not be named out of fear of losing work, told KERA that locators fail to identify utility lines multiple times a year, resulting in damage to gas, water and utility lines.
“If they don't mark it, and they don't have an indication of it being there, well then we don't either," the excavator said.
He said the main gas line is usually not an issue; rather, it's the smaller service lines that run to the house or business that don't get marked.
He added that locators' ability to locate utility lines can depend on if they have been well-mapped. With old utility lines, there may be few if any existing records showing where the line runs.
Hitting a line can mean losing days of work, having to pay crews overtime or dealing with insurance claims from utility companies, he said.
In early January, an excavator in Irving reported she had contacted the one call center before a worker scraped down about one foot and “heard a loud hissing noise coming out of the section of material he just scraped.”
The report on the incident submitted to the railroad commission stated that the worker “immediately turned off and exited his machine, moving quickly away from the source of the sound." It further stated that an excavation permit had been completed prior to work beginning and the “line in question had been located (potholed)” but that flags marking its location “had incorrectly denoted the line at a depth of 4 feet.”
Missed opportunities?
Railroad commission records examined by KERA indicate that many companies and individuals fail to follow the state law and call in. As a result, pipeline damage that might have been avoided routinely occurs across the state.
Of the over 1,000 pipeline incidents this year in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin counties, 177 involved excavators who had not notified the state before digging, according to commission data examined by KERA. Statewide, about a third of the excavators in Texas who’ve struck pipelines thus far in 2026 had not called in prior to beginning work.
Industry groups and regulators, including the Texas Railroad Commission, have spent years attempting to make the notification process easier for contractors, developers and homeowners.
Other states also have identified damage to pipelines as a serious issue and have taken similar steps.
The National Conference of State Legislatures described excavation damage as “one of the leading causes of damage to underground infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines, water and sewer networks and fiberoptics."
“Not only is this damage potentially dangerous to public health and safety, but it’s also costly to address and repair damages, the NCSL report stated.
“From 2005 through 2016, there were 875 reported major pipeline incidents caused by excavation damage. These resulted in 40 fatalities, 166 injuries requiring hospitalization, and more than $322 million in property damage.”
‘A natural gas-fueled explosion’
Additional fatalities have been reported since that time:
A "natural gas-fueled explosion" killed a 12-year-old girl in Dallas and injured several others in 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board's report on the incident stated that the one-story two-bedroom house sustained major structural damage. Investigators noted a "through-wall crack" in a 71-year-old natural gas main that provided gas to the residence.
"In the 2 days before this explosion, two gas-related incidents occurred on the same block at houses that were served by the same natural gas main, each resulting in significant structural damage and burn injuries to one occupant," the report stated.
The probable cause of the explosion "was the ignition of an accumulation of natural gas that leaked from the gas main that was damaged during a sewer replacement project 23 years earlier and was undetected by Atmos Energy Corporation’s investigation of two related natural gas incidents on the 2 days prior to the explosion," according to the report.
An explosion in Kansas City suburb of Lexington, Mo., killed a 5-year-old boy and seriously injured his father and 10-year-old sister in April 2025. A preliminary report by the NTSB stated that the explosion damaged two others. It occurred several hours after a drilling subcontractor installing a fiber optic line “drilled into an unmarked section of a capped and known buried utilities had been marked.
A natural gas explosion in Hayward, Calif., destroyed a house and seriously injured three people in December, 2025. An NTSB preliminary report stated that a roadwork crew had damaged a service line running to a house opposite the one that exploded.
John Barr, a civil trial lawyer who has decades of experience in litigation related to natural gas incidents, said people should wait until investigations are completed before drawing conclusions. But after catastrophic events like the Oak Cliff apartment explosion, he said, lawmakers and regulators often push for new safeguards, stronger oversight and infrastructure upgrades.
“Hopefully we learn from these types of horrible things,” Barr said. “If we’re not learning from it, then it’s insult to injury. You certainly want to prevent this, and it’s a real tragedy when this happens to a family. And frequently, it’s not understood.”
Alexsis Jones is a reporter and producer for KERA News. Got a tip? Email Alexsis at ajones@kera.org.
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Dylan Duke is KERA's Breaking News Reporter. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
