Know What’s Below:

In most densely populated areas in the US, many utilities such as water services, electrical and communication cables, and sewer and storm water conveyance systems are buried underground. This keeps them out of the way of normal everyday activities and allows gravity to drain wastepipes without assistance from pumps. This also means that they add to the overall complication of any work involving moving earth, such as drilling for soil samples or building a new addition or structure. Whether you’re a homeowner installing sprinklers, a contractor installing utility mains, or just feel like grading out that flat patio for summer barbeques, you should know what’s in the ground already so you can avoid hitting anything and save yourself thousands of dollars in costly delays and annoying headaches.

In the US, we have a handy (free!) service that allows anyone to call in, state your work, and within 2 business days, have all publicly operated utilities marked coming to and from your site. Water lines, gas lines, fiber optic, communication cables, sewer and storm systems, septic drain fields are all expensive to repair if damaged and can set your project back. The companies or public service agencies that are in charge of operating and maintaining these different systems will be notified of your work and send someone to mark everything they can find with colored paint and/or flags. The markings will help you know which areas you can dig and which to avoid. If they fail to locate utilities in the right-of-way, you’re not liable for damages as you had no way of knowing the utility was there.

For complicated sites with many more densely packed utilities, paid services exist for more precise and extensive locates. Anyone who wants some additional assistance locating utilities on-site can hire one of these locating companies to do a more thorough site marking. These can be a great resource when public locates are unsuccessful (some older properties have poor or non-existent as-builts, poor maintenance, and/or different materials which can make location difficult). It’s also important to note that one call locates do not locate private utilities (like septic) and only marks public to the meter (the water meter is in the right of the way) and almost never sewer (smelly problem).

So, save yourself a hassle, whatever your earth working project, from garden beds to large scale plat development, call 8-1-1 before you dig. RGI contacts 811 prior to any of our jobs, and frequently employs a private utility contractor to protect us, our subcontractors, our clients, underground utilities, and the environment.