Many people don’t think about 811 or getting underground utility lines marked until it’s too late. By too late, we mean a project involving digging has begun and a utility line has been damaged in the process. By most people, we mean the 74% of Texans who don’t know EVERY DIG COUNTS. Damaging underground utility lines can cause unwanted outages, fines and repair costs.
When you contact Texas811 to have your lines marked, you are initiating a process that includes our contact center, utility locators and utility companies working together to prepare you for safe digging. Our contact center takes your information on the work you are planning to do and after identifying which utilities have lines near your work area, we notify the utilities of your plan to dig. The utilities send locators to your site to physically mark the ground to identify the position of the underground lines. The two working days, excluding weekends and holiday, wait between making the request and being able to dig allows the locators to travel to your dig site. Lines may be marked with flags or paint on the ground.
Fast, Easy & Free. It’s the Law.
Dial 811 or make a request online two-business days before any digging project.
Wait the two-business days for the utility companies to mark the work area.
Confirm that all affected utility companies have responded. Responses can be verified by comparing markings with utilities listed on the 811 ticket. Learn what each colored marking means. Positive Response for excavators.
Respect and replace the markings provided by the utility companies. These markings are your guide for the duration of the project.
It is the responsibility of the person digging to avoid damaging marked lines.
