In planning a small excavation project (about 8 inches deep over a 250 s.f. area), I called the “call before you dig” people and they sent out all the major utilities to mark the area I’m not supposed to dig up. The water utility came by – I know it’s water, because it’s blue – and left these mysterious markings: http://img42.com/JPhWS. Looks like “OK somethingsomething” to me, but what if it really says “Dig here to ensure major repair bill”? I thought they were supposed to mark where the lines are, not write a little note.
I called the call-before-you-dig people, they had no idea. I called the water utility, they had no idea. I called the marking company contracted by the water utility, they had no idea. Can anybody with more experience decipher what this probably means?
They’re aware they did a search for me, but the person answering the phone has no idea what sorts of things the markers are likely to write, nor is there any status indicated for me. All they know is they came out, they marked, it’s up to me to interpret the markings. I think I will have to visit them in person, photo in hand, and ask speak to one of the people who actually drives the truck out and makes markings. Kind of crazy, huh?
If there is a water line you should see a straight line of chevrons painted on the ground, the point of the chevron indicating the line is straight down(they won’t indicate depth,dig at your own risk).
I see “no c??? w(ater) d??? ???” Can your water utility be abbreviated “c.w.d.”?
Dig Safe is the state service in my area. I wouldn’t even bother calling if I was only going down 8 inches.
In any case they don’t mark where you can or can not dig. They only mark where things are believed to exist. They aren’t particularly good about it in my experience. It’s never caused a major issue but finding an electrical main ten feet from where it is supposed to be is frustrating. About 25% of the time they don’t mark anything (even if it exists) in which case the law is they have 7 days to mark, if they haven’t we’ve met our obligation and it’s considered safe to dig.
“CWD” is totally possible - Clackamas Water District. But they’re really called Clackamas River Water District and use “CRW” on their website and bills. At any rate - glad to know the lines are generally buried more than 8" deep.
We can agree on the ‘No’. Not sure about the rest.
Did you mark the intended excavation area in white? If you didn’t, then the water crew might not have bothered marking the lines since the area to be excavated wasn’t clear.
Are you hand digging the area? If so, then I wouldn’t worry about it at only 8 inches. But what are you installing? If you build over their easement then you might have a problem if they ever have to excavate their line. Not a big deal if you are digging a garden. Somewhat more of a problem if you are building a detached garage.
If you go to this page, from what I’m reading, a chat icon should pop up during business hours and you might be able to ask them. Otherwise, you could probably send the picture to one of their email contacts (alone with your address and contact info) and ask them. I’d probably go with Director of Customer Relations and/or General Manager.
If the utilities come by one by one, and it was just water and you only had part of your property marked, it might mean ‘all clear’. I mean, you DO have water underground, but it likely runs from the street to whatever part of your house the main shutoff is in (but don’t take my word for it. Of course, in Seattle, it’s going to be at least 48" deep, so that’s not something I’d worry about for an 8 inch deep project. You’re biggest concern at that depth is going to be cable and phone. I think electrical is 2 feet deep, so if you’re not using powered equipment, you probably won’t hit that either, but obviously, they’ll be out to mark that.
Here in Alberta with winter and all water lines are deep due to freezing risk. Lines that are not affected by frost like electrical and gas are still buried a minimum of 18", anything less is just stupid risky.
Nothing should be only 8" down. Dig with a shovel if you are worried, but like others I wouldn’t even bother with a locate for such a depth.
I visited the utility in person. They couldn’t tell me exactly what it says, but after some internal discussion they seemed confident as to the meaning. It means there is no utility line of theirs in the general area. They were at pains to point out that there may very well be a water line installed by the builder, but the utility would have no records of that – they only know about their own lines, which stop at the street.
Even though I’m only planning to go 8" deep, I’m going to be very, very careful. I’ll be using a roto-tiller and I’ll practice on areas far away where any private line is likely to be, to make sure I don’t go too deep by accident. Thanks everybody!
The whole call-before-you-dig thing is an effort to determine who has liability if something bad happens. If you DON’T call, you assume all risk for any damage/repairs that have to be done as a result of you project. If you DO call, but they don’t mark their lines (or miss-mark them), the liability is on them. If you call, they mark, and you still dig up something where they marked it, the liability is on you. So anytime you’re digging around marked lines, be very careful with how you go about your digging.
Our lawn sprinklers in the back yard here in Texas are, of course, not anything like 8’’ deep. Then there’s the cable guy who came out to hook up the neighbors to the box on the far side of our yard, and laid his cable across the top of one of the sprinkler heads. (We ran a test and that one was mostly blocked.) I moved the cable and pushed it down a bit, but none of it seems deeper than 2 or 3 inches.
“DI” stands for “ductile iron.” It is what water mains are fabricated from, i.e. ductile iron pipe.
For what it’s worth, you did the right thing calling “Call Before You Dig (CBYD)” even if you are only going down 8 inches. In all states that I’ve worked in, it has been the law that you are required to call the CBYD for any excavation, regardless of depth. Here in Connecticut, utilities have two full working days to mark out utilities after being notified, excluding weekends and holidays.
The CBYD laws are mainly about safety. If you inadvertently dig through a gas line or electrical duct bank, you can kill yourself and/or bystanders.
Liability is a secondary concern. As noted above, if you excavate without calling CBYD, you are breaking the law and are liable for any utilities you damage. If you hit a utility that is properly marked out, you are similarly liable. However, if you hit a utility that is not properly marked out after you called CBYD (and have a dig ticket to prove it), then the utility is liable to fix their own damaged utility and for any damages you suffer.
Utility locators routinely use a combination of record drawings and magnetic detection equipment.
See my previous post. Direct-buried water mains are generally made of ductile iron, not steel.*
Ductile iron pipe is more rugged and has a much thicker wall thickness than the commercially available steel pipe of similar diameter. The most common DI joint is the push-on gasketed joint, and installation is very easy and relatively inexpensive.
The downside is that DI pipe is very heavy compared to steel pipe. Steel pipe is therefore often used for above-grade installation, such as hanging pipe under a bridge.
*Sometimes a heavy-duty type of PVC pipe known as C900 pipe is also used. Being made of PVC, it is more corrosion-resistant and is lighter than DI pipe. However, it’s also more brittle, less durable, and very susceptible to breakage if hit.
Around here, we have Diggers Hotline. And they are horrible. I purchased a home with a lot that hadn’t been graded and no driveway, patio, storage shed, etc. put in. For each of these projects, I called Diggers Hotline and had them mark the utilities.
Each project resulted in completely different markings. Not by inches, mind you. We’re talking about up to 20 to 25 foot differences in where they marked the underground gas, water and electric lines. Sometimes they would indicate that there were no natural gas lines (I wonder how the gas furnace and stove worked then). Another time, they indicated two different electric supply lines to the meter. Another time, it looked like they randomly placed their little flags in various locations in the general vicinity of the utility lines.
Luckily, myself or contractors never did hit a line - I’m assuming they were buried too deeply to worry about for general small scale excavation anyways. But their carelessness certainly was troubling when life and safety is involved.