Know What’s Below. Call Before You Dig.

April 10, 2023

Congress has recognized April as National Safe Digging Month which means as temperatures increase, and spring digging projects begin it’s important to know what to do even if your project is as small as digging a hole for a mailbox.
In today’s modern living, many of the utilities to service our homes and businesses are now installed underground. Water, sewer, natural gas, power, telephone, cable TV, and fiber optic lines are just to name a few. Homeowners and businesses have a legal and financial responsibility for any damage caused to those underground utilities.

To avoid the pitfalls that will incur if a utility line is hit call 8-1-1, the national call-before-you-dig phone number. 811 is a free line locating service and it’s easy to use. Here’s how it works:

Notify
Call 8-1-1 or request a line locate online at least two business days before you begin any digging, including common projects like planting trees and shrubs or installing fences and mailboxes. The information you will need to provide includes the address of where you plan to dig, the type of project you’re completing, and the exact area on the property where you’re planning to dig.

Wait
Utility companies will respond to your call within a few business days. Each notified utility will mark its lines with paint or a flag in that utility’s designated color. Note, however, that any private lines—such as water and sewer lines on private property—will not be marked.

Confirm
Ensure that all utilities have indeed responded to your request before breaking ground.

Respect
Once all utilities have marked their buried lines, you should dig carefully around any utility marks.

To learn more about 8-1-1 in your state and to request a line locate online, click the button below:

Request a Locate (Idaho Only)

Request a Locate (Utah Only)

How much will it cost to have underground utilities located on my property?

I'm not digging very deep. Do I need to call?

Can I submit line locating requests online?

How deep are the underground utility lines buried?

We can never guarantee the depth of underground facilities. Utility lines are usually installed prior to any new construction. If the land is graded, leveled, or reshaped in any other way, this will change the depth of any underground utility lines. Natural ground settling will also change the depth. If you need to dig near the locate marks, hand-dig (use a hand implement, like a shovel) or soft-dig (use air or water pressure) within 24 inches of either side of the markings to avoid damage.

How can I be sure that the right utilities have been notified?

When an underground facility owner becomes a Utility member, that owner provides a detailed notification area, covering all the territory it services. In this case Idaho's 811 service, Digline, programs the notification area into their database software, which cross-references the territory with GPS coordinates and current street data from Idaho’s county assessors. When locate requests come in, this database allows the Digline staff to select the appropriate excavation area and accurately notify the affected Member Utilities.

Of course, their database can only be as accurate as the data they receive. If you know of an underground facility owner in the excavation area that is not listed on your locate request ticket, please notify Digline.

Posted in ATC Communications Blog

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