Call before you dig! Every time you dig!

[ThomasH]

My public service announcement for the day is call for a locate service before you dig, EVERY TIME you dig.
Don’t be like me. Over the past 5 years I’ve had the utility companies come and locate their lines multiple times, so I was absolutely confident that I knew exactly where everything was.
At least until I busted through the natural gas line with the backhoe yesterday. Had no idea that damn thing was there, and have no idea how I missed the markings from previous 811 calls over the years for that line.

Luckily, no one got hurt, and nothing other than the NG line was damaged. It took about 4 hours before service was fully restored. Not looking forward to my next utility bill.

 

[pokey1416]

Good post especially since this is 811 day

 

[Mlarv]

I did and everything was marked, phone cable power. My contractor was operating a track hoe and hit every one of them. Seems the marking was about 8 feet off from the real line's. The only thing I lost was phone and a new Fiber line, the power lines were not hurt. I guess even if you call be careful because as I found out they are not always correct.

 

[NHSleddog]

Great advice!

Here in New England we have DigSafe. it is free to the caller and they usually show up within a couple days.

My commercial liability policy specifically states that if digsafe isn't called on a job, and there is an issue under the surface, they don't cover it.

IMPORTANT. AAGR - digsafe only marks "known" public utilities. They normally do not mark anything private. So the propane line out to the old shop would not normally be marked. So even with the "official" markings, always pay attention when going below the surface.

 

[dirtydeed]

IMPORTANT. AAGR - digsafe only marks "known" public utilities. They normally do not mark anything private. So the propane line out to the old shop would not normally be marked. So even with the "official" markings, always pay attention when going below the surface.

Great advice (warning) right there.

 

[aaluck]

Great point. They hate me. I call at least 2-3 times a year before I dig even if I 'think' I remember where the lines were.

 

[bx tractorjoe]

Yep.. i almost tore up my internet cable.. that was only 2 inches below ground when digging a hole for a tree..

When I ran power to my shop i hit a sprinkler pipe.. but I did find my well pump line and dug around it with a shovel.. i did call 811 and they marked where the power lines were

The other day I almost hit cut another sprinkler line with a shovel.. fun stuff

 

[Mark_BX25D]

My neighbor across the street is a retired lineman. He knows better. He still shredded my phone line (the pole is on his side of the street) while doing some cleanup of a drainage ditch.

I razz him about it every time I get a chance, of course.

Of course, part of the fault was Verizon's. The put my line right over the top of his culvert pipe, about a whopping 2 inches deep!

 

[Palmettokat]

One of our daughters is building beside us. About two months back the public water company went to install their line and meter. Yes they had the lines marked and as I walked from mail box back to my office (sits to side of and further back than our house) a little thought came to me...when I was mowing by there the other day saw no marking for the phone and internet lines the phone company ran on my side of the road ditch..by this time the phones were gone. Now was it wise for the phone company smart few years ago to install those lines on our side of the road ditch, not really. Where they on the state's property, yes.

 

[ThomasH]

Well, to add injury to insult, my extremely heroic action (lol) of jumping out of the backhoe seat to get into the cab and shut the engine down before it touched off the natural gas resulted in a hairline fracture of the second metatarsal in my left foot.

No idea what the hell I did, but today, couldn’t walk on it and X-ray confirmed it. This getting old crap sucks. There goes the next 6 weeks.

 

[DrankTheOrangeKoolaid]

IMPORTANT. AAGR - digsafe only marks "known" public utilities. They normally do not mark anything private. So the propane line out to the old shop would not normally be marked. So even with the "official" markings, always pay attention when going below the surface.

When installing your own "utilities", tracer line is cheap and easy.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

What is "tracer line"? A search on that didn't pull up anything that fits.

 

[Mlarv]

What is "tracer line"? A search on that didn't pull up anything that fits.

It is like a foil wrap around the plastic pipe so you can hook up a toner and follow the line underground.

What Is Tracer Wire?

Tracer wire, also called locating wire or locator wire, is used to assist in locating pipes and other lines after they’ve been buried in the ground.

www.kristechwire.com

 

[DrankTheOrangeKoolaid]

From what I have seen, it is just a wire buried along with the utility line. Some detectors can find the wire without any additional help, some require a toner. For giggles, I hitched up my old telephone wire toner to the gas line tracer and was able to detect it. It is about 18" deep. The wire can be color coded to tell you the utility is, but I'm not sure of the point of that. If the wire comes out of the ground beside the gas line, I would suspect it is to trace the gas line.

 

[Lil Foot]

It is like a foil wrap around the plastic pipe so you can hook up a toner and follow the line underground.

In my case, it's a roll of foil tape.

 

[jbolt001]

Years ago I was putting in a French drain around a customers home. We called and all the utilities were marked. While my excavator guy was digging the discharge line trench a power company truck showed up and told us to stop. The underground main high voltage line for the neighborhood had been marked incorrectly by 12 feet. My excavator guy managed to break all three wires at different points along the edge of the trench without shorting any to each other. Looking in the trench you could not differentiate the broken power line ends from broken roots. Understandably he was furious with the power company and gave them quite the tongue lashing. We were lucky no one was seriously hurt or killed.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Here in Michigan at least, calling Ms Dig and having the utilities flagged will only get you within 8 feet either side of the markers so, the flags could be right on or within 16 feet total.

 

[ThomasH]

In my case, it's a roll of foil tape.
View attachment 47153 View attachment 47154

Hmm usually when they use the foil tape or caution tape, it is buried a foot or two above the line in the hopes that if you are digging you will find the tape well be found before you hit the line.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

Yes, I'm currently running a French drain and redoing my well supply line at the same time. I plan to bury some yellow CAUTION tape above it for that reason.

Of course, I'm also putting the new well line about 4 feet down....

 

[Outnumbered]

Glad to hear there was no major issues other than the foot, hate to say it but it definitely could have been worse. Back in my old electrical construction days I called Miss Utility who provided the free locating services here in Virginia to mark a property I was getting ready to run a ditch witch on and install a power feeder to a remote gate up at the main entrance. They came and marked everything and I went out of my way to stay at least 5' away from all the marks (the minimum was 3'). After about 30 minutes I noticed all kinds of colors coming out of the ditch and immediately stopped and raised cutter. Turns out Miss Utility marked an abandoned phone line and I managed to find the live one for the whole southside of Richmond. No 911 or phone service for two days while they spliced that bad boy back together. My staying away from their marks and doing my due diligence saved the company a pile of money and liability.