Call Before You Dig

Excavators (those professionals doing an excavation project) in most states, if not all, are required by law to call a notification center - or One-Call Center - before any excavation project whether it is on public or private property. If an excavator damages an underground utility - including telephone, cable, water, electric, sewer or one of the other myriad of lines, wires or pipes found on properties - without calling before digging, the excavator is liable for the repair costs and may sometimes be hit with steep fines as well. For instance, fines in California can reach a maximum of $50,000 for hitting a line without calling before digging. "With almost every state law, if you do hit something and you did not call before digging, you’re liable for cost of repairs and more," explained Don Evans, executive administrator of the Utilities Underground Location Center, Seattle, Wash., and former chairman of One-Call Systems International.

But calling before digging is not just a legal consideration; it is a common sense consideration. Hitting an underground electric line may injure a machine operator or even cause death. Additionally, damaging an underground utility can temporarily interrupt service to a property owner or even hundreds of other properties. For these reasons, very few exceptions exist to not be required to call before you dig, and they are commonly limited to homeowners digging no more than 1 foot deep on their property for agricultural purposes, according to Evans.

Evans emphasized the importance of using a One-Call Center before digging, especially because it is a free service to the caller. "Excavators should look at it as a free insurance policy," he noted, explaining that the owners and operators of underground lines are often required to pay the fees of the service because they have the liability. He said line owners must mark lines in the amount of time required by a state and must locate those lines properly. "In most cases, just as there are penalties for not calling, there can be penalties for not locating properly by the owner/operator as well," he mentioned.

Use of One-Call Centers is promoted by the Dig Safely Team (formerly the Damage Prevention Quality Action Team), which is a subcommittee of the Educational Programs Committee of the Common Ground Alliance. Dig Safely is a national campaign to enhance safety, environmental protection and service reliability by reducing underground facility damage.

CALL BEFORE YOU DIG PROCESS. Evans said there is at least one One-Call Center in every state, so excavators should locate their state’s number and keep it on hand to call each time an excavation project arises. Methods of finding a local center’s number include looking in the Yellow Pages under "line locating" or a similar heading or calling a utility company. However, Evans also provided a toll-free national referral number - 888/258-0808 - that can be used to obtain a local center number, or excavators can look up their state’s One-Call Center number online here: www.digsafely.com/digsafely/OneCallNumbers.htm.

"Once an excavator calls the toll-free number he will be asked basic questions," Evans said. These questions include details about when digging is to be done, where it will be done and why it is being done. "You have to be really specific as to where you’re digging," he explained. "You’re going to be asked, what the address is, if known, or what the closest cross street or nearest intersection is." (See "Information To Provide A One-Call Center" at right for more information to provide when calling).

While One-Call will ask many questions about a project, Evans said an excavator doesn’t necessarily need to know them all. However, an excavator must know precisely where digging will be done. A call usually takes about three minutes and One-Call Centers will often provide a checklist for future reference. "Once a person gets used to making that call, the next time they call, they’ll have the information in hand," Evans noted.

One-Call Centers will then let an excavator know which utility companies are being notified and provide a reference number. Evans said the reference number is a very important item to keep track of because an excavator will need that number onsite until work is completed in case an inspector shows up on a property with questions about a dig.

Owners of underground utilities then have a set amount of time to mark lines at a job site, which varies among states, but averages at two business days, said Evans. Within that time period, the utility companies must mark underground lines with the appropriate nationally recognized paint color (see "Look At The Colors" at left).

RESPECTING THE MARKS. "Once an excavator is onsite, he should respect utility marks and dig with care," warned Evans.

He said if excavators heed the following five steps, they are much less likely to hit underground utilities:

1. Call Before You Dig
2. Wait the Required Time
3. Respect the Marks
4. Excavate (Dig) With Care
5. Safety Is Everyone's Responsibility

Evans also recommended that excavators add the days for marking utilities to job time estimations when bidding so they can better represent the amount of time it will take to complete a job.