Now that the weather has finally warmed up, it’s time to get moving on the yardwork that needs to be done. Some of this yardwork may include the need for digging on your property. If that is the case, property owners need to take proper safety steps.
The first step to ensure safe digging is to call Diggers Hotline at 811. Diggers Hotline is a free service that must be used if you plan on doing any kind of digging in order to avoid damaging underground lines. A property owner must call Diggers Hotline at least three working days before they start digging.
Wisconsin Statute 182.0175 requires that property owners notify Diggers Hotline before they excavate, grade, trench, dig, drill, augur, tunnel, scrape, plow cable or pipe.
When a property owner calls Diggers Hotline, they will need to provide the following information: your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, as well as the name of the person who will be doing the digging and their phone number. Diggers Hotline will also need to know the city, township, or village your work will take place in, the address of the dig site, and the name of the side street your dig site is on and the nearest intersecting road.
Dig site information will also need to be provided. This includes the start date of the dig project, the type of project you are doing that requires digging, as well as marking instructions on how you will mark the area in which underground lines need to be located in.
After the call to Diggers Hotline is completed, they will coordinate between excavators and the owners of the buried lines on the property. The owners of the lines will mark the locations near your job site with paint and/or flags. Property owners need to be aware that private lines are considered the responsibility of the landowner and will not be marked by Diggers Hotline. A locating company can be hired to mark private lines.
Since locating underground lines is not an exact science, the actual location of the lines could vary from the position of the marks. Because of that, state law mandates an 18-inch buffer zone on each side of the marks indicating an underground line.