Uniondale, NY - August 11, 2015 - In honor of National 811 Day to promote safe digging awareness, PSEG Long Island is reminding customers, contractors and excavators to take care when digging to avoid hitting underground pipelines, conduits, wires and cables. To make it easy, 811 has been designated as the national dialing code to have underground lines located and marked.
When you call 811, you are automatically connected to the New York one-call center, which collects information about your digging project. The one-call center then provides the information to the utility companies, who will send representatives to mark the locations of underground lines in the immediate vicinity of the planned work location with flags, paint or both. Once lines have been properly marked and your locate request becomes valid, you are free to carefully dig around the marked areas.
Every digging project, even a small project like planting a tree or building a deck, requires a call to 811. Call 811 at least 48 hours but no more than 10 working days before beginning any landscape or digging project on your property. The call must be made whether you are hiring a professional or planning to do the job yourself. Striking a single line can cause serious injuries as well as outages, resulting in repair costs and fines.
Here’s important information to consider:
- Underground electric, gas, communications and water lines are everywhere, even on private property. You can easily damage them if you don’t know where they are, with the potential to seriously injure yourself or others. Digging into these lines also can disrupt the vital utility services and result in costly delays, expensive repairs and environmental or property damage.
- Whether planning a major home improvement project or installing something as simple as a fence, mailbox post, For Sale or baby announcement sign, a call must be placed beforehand to know where it’s safe to dig.
- Call 811 at least two business days before each job to have underground pipes, wires and equipment located. Utility workers will respond and place markers where utility lines are buried, free of charge.
- Be sure to wait for all responses and confirmations from the various utility owners before doing any digging. Don’t dig until lines have been marked. Go to the New York 811 website to learn more about Automated Positive Responses (APR’s).
- Property owners must also maintain and respect the marks. Always hand dig within two feet of the marks until positive identification of existing subsurface facilities is made (see website for Tolerance Zone test hole procedures and practices).
- If you accidentally damage gas piping or smell gas when excavating, please call 911 immediately from a safe area. Call before you dig is more than a good idea — it’s the law.
Additional information, including a damage prevention booklet on safe excavating practices and the protection of underground facilities, can be found online.