Professional Excavators: 811 Before Every Dig! Locate Underground Public Utility Lines.

Colorado Law requires that you must place an 811 Locate Ticket Request at least two (2) working / business days (not counting the day of actual notice) before any excavation or demolition starts.

Excavation means any operation in which earth is moved or removed by means of any tools, equipment, or explosives. Excavations and demolitions include, but are not limited to: Auguring, Backfilling, Boring, Boring Holes for Percolation Tests, Cable or Pipe Plowing or Driving, Demolition of Structures, Digging, Ditching, Dredging, Drilling, Driving Survey Pins, Fence Post or Pile Driving, Grading, Installing Sign Poles, Jackhammering, Milling, Moving Earth, Plowing In, Pulling In, Razing, Saw Cutting, Scraping, Setting Poles, Tree Root Removal / Stump grinding, Trenching Tunneling Wrecking, and more.

You must notify the 811 Contact Center regardless of where the planned excavation or demolition is located. Even if it is on private property, out in the middle of a field, or on a street that has no name. You must notify the 811 Contact Center even if you are only excavating a few inches or just surface grading. If you move material, you must notify 811 before you dig. You must notify the Contact Center even if the property owner tells you the site has no buried facilities, or he/she knows where buried facilities are located. Make sure you have a proper Location Request. DO NOT rely on old marks, or another excavator’s marks or location request. No piggybacking. Premark out the area you plan to excavate with white paint, flags, or stakes.  

Before you contact 811, gather the information you need to place your locate ticket request quickly and accurately. Information includes:

• The name and telephone number of the person who is giving the ticket locate notice;

• The name and telephone number of the excavator; and the specific location, starting date, and description of the intended excavation activity.

• And other pertinent information regarding the dig site you would like to share or as requested by Colorado 811 to complete your locate ticket request.

For “emergency excavations” or demolitions notify the Colorado 811 Contact Center with the location of the emergency excavation or demolition as soon as possible. And emergency is any abnormal condition which presents immediate danger to life or property including discontinuance of a vital utility service necessary for the maintenance of public health, safety and welfare. To constitute an emergency, you must be on-site or on the way to the site to do the work. Emergency situations include ruptures and leakage of pipelines, explosions, fires, and similar instances where immediate action is necessary to prevent loss of life or significant damage to property, including, without limitation, underground facilities, and advance notice of proposed excavation is impracticable under the circumstances.

“Damage” includes the penetration or destruction of any protective coating, housing, or other protective device of an underground facility, the denting or partial or complete severance of an underground facility, or the rendering of any underground facility inaccessible.

Always Check for Positive Response and Ticket Status Before Dig!

Once a facility owner/operator marks the location of existing facilities in the proposed excavation area or determines that excavation or demolition is not in conflict with any of its existing underground facilities, it notifies the excavator of the status of the ticket by appropriate response code through the 811 center's positive response system.  In addition to positive response, additional communication may be made by any reasonable manner including, but not limited to, face-to-face communications, phone or other electronic means. 

The excavator reviews the positive response from the notified owner/operator on the ticket before beginning the excavation. 

If an excavator identifies or has knowledge of the existence of an underground facility, the excavator notifies the 811 center that a conflict exists.  Better communication between the excavator and the facility owner/operator is required as an area of excavation becomes more crowded with new underground facilities. The excavator reviews all positive responses and compares these to the list of all owner/operators notified on the ticket prior to beginning excavation.  Upon review, the excavator notifies the 811 center of any discrepancy between the positive responses and the field conditions.

View the Colorado 811 List of Positive Response Codes (link to current PDF) 

View the Colorado One-Call Law, Colorado Revised Statutes 2022 (link to PDF)