April is national safe digging month!

April 5th, 2018

MAKE A CALL TO 811 PART OF YOUR SPRINGTIME PLANS

Spring is finally here! With the snow melted and the ground ready for planting, eager homeowners like you are gearing up to start those outdoor digging projects. Before you reach for that shovel to start digging, remember to call 811, the national call-before-you-dig number, to ensure that your buried utility lines are marked.

National Safe Digging Month was designated to remind everyone that our land is made up of a complex underground infrastructure of pipelines, wires and cables.

A call must be placed to 811 before every digging project, from simple landscaping projects like planting trees or shrubs, to building a deck or installing a rural mailbox. Every nine minutes an underground utility line is damaged because someone decided to dig without first calling 811. Don’t become part of the statistic – make sure to call 811!

Here’s how it works:

  • One free, simple phone call to 811 makes it easy for your local 811 Call Center to notify all appropriate utility companies of your intent to dig.
  • Call at least 48 hours prior to digging to ensure enough time for utility lines to be properly marked.
  • When you call 811, a representative from your local 811 Call Center will ask for the location and description of your digging project.
  • Your local 811 Call Center will notify affected utility companies, who will then each send a professional locator to the proposed dig site to mark the approximate location of your lines.
  • Once lines have been properly marked, roll up those sleeves and carefully dig around the marked areas.