What is Utility Locating?
Utility locating is the detection of underground utilities and other subsurface findings using radio signals, ground-penetrating radar, and other tools. Utilities can be located and marked out in a safe, non-destructive manner to indicate where the telecom, water, sewer mains, gas, and electric are in your project work zone. This helps you avoid digging into those facilities and helps prevent personal injury and property damage from gas explosions, fire, electrocution, flooding, and unintended facility outages. A “small” utility outage can pose health hazards from sewage or gas leaks, loss of water and heat, and an inability to call 911 in an emergency.
What is Alaska811?
Alaska811 is a contact center that coordinates underground utility marking. Alaska811 does not perform the actual marking; that is done by Alaska811 member facility owners or their contractors. The notification process is a free service to all excavators for the first locate on a project. The process begins when an excavator notifies Alaska811 of a proposed excavation. This must occur not less than two (2) nor more than fifteen (15) full business days prior to excavation.
Based on the information received from the excavator, Alaska811 then notifies its members that may have underground facilities near the excavation site. This notification is called a locate ticket.
After receiving the ticket, underground facility owners have two (2) full working days or up to ten (10) full working days in remote locations to:
- Locate underground facilities at the proposed excavation site described on the locate ticket.
- Reschedule the locate to a mutually agreeable date and time.
- Notify the excavator that there are no underground facilities in the work area described in the notice.