dig safe

[vtcoyote]

this weekend we will (hopefully) be digging a 200-300 ft. long drainage ditch to keep our barn from becoming a indoor swimming pool. anyway i just got off the phone with dig-safe and the whole thing will free to register, but it won't be legal until monday. for me its either this weekend or wait 1 month (my horses wouldn't like that ).

we will not be going deeper than 2-2 1/2 ft. deep and will not be laying any pipe, just a good ol' fashion surface drain.

what are your experiences with these kind of issues?

do i even need a permit for a job of this size?

if i still dig and the guy comes by am i going to get fined?

should i wait?

any thoughts appreciated!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

this weekend we will (hopefully) be digging a 200-300 ft. long drainage ditch to keep our barn from becoming a indoor swimming pool. anyway i just got off the phone with dig-safe and the whole thing will free to register, but it won't be legal until monday. for me its either this weekend or wait 1 month (my horses wouldn't like that ).

we will not be going deeper than 2-2 1/2 ft. deep and will not be laying any pipe, just a good ol' fashion surface drain.

what are your experiences with these kind of issues?

do i even need a permit for a job of this size?

if i still dig and the guy comes by am i going to get fined?

should i wait?

any thoughts appreciated!

You don't show where you live so we really don't know how to reply. There is one constant though, you cut a utility because you didn't want to wait for a locate, well, it can be expensive, very expensive.

A fiber drop can run you two to three thousand for a replacement, they con't repair them. They have been cut by landscapers tilling lawns. Water lines usually are ran without a rhyme or reason, they can be anywhere and usually are. Gas and electric lines can carry not only high cost for cutting, they can hurt you.

I wouldn't do it unless I was darn sure there was nothing down there. And you can't know that unless you've owned the property for fifty years or so.

 

[RonMar]

Yep, it depends on your situation. Like stated, you cut someone elses line or even one of your own services for that matter, it could cost you a small fortune to have repaired. If you are digging on your own property and are going no where near established utility runs, it shouldn't be an issue. If you are the slightest bit in doubt, wait for the locate and CYA...

 

[vtcoyote]

sorry forgot location; i am in vermont and am really only in danger of cutting my own utilities, there is no gas or water in these parts and they were up here couple years ago in the same spot so i have a general idea of the location of the lines.

hopefully they will come sooner than monday!

thanks for the input

 

[dangerdoc]

this weekend we will (hopefully) be digging a 200-300 ft. long drainage ditch to keep our barn from becoming a indoor swimming pool. anyway i just got off the phone with dig-safe and the whole thing will free to register, but it won't be legal until monday. for me its either this weekend or wait 1 month (my horses wouldn't like that ).

we will not be going deeper than 2-2 1/2 ft. deep and will not be laying any pipe, just a good ol' fashion surface drain.

what are your experiences with these kind of issues?

do i even need a permit for a job of this size?

if i still dig and the guy comes by am i going to get fined?

should i wait?

any thoughts appreciated!

A note of caution, they may not really know where the lines run. A couple of years ago, my brother called, had flags on the property and was digging about 8 feet from the neerest flag. When I wandered down, I saw the backhoe shutdown with the buried electric line hanging from the bucket.

Nobody was hurt but there was a lot of arguing about who was at fault.

 

[Bird]

I don't know anything about Vermont laws, but to answer your first question as to whether you would get fined if you go ahead digging and the guy who does the locate shows up; not in Texas UNLESS you cut/break/damage a utility line, and then as the others have said, that can get very expensive.

Do you need a permit? Again, I don't know about Vermont, but here it varies by county. We used to have no restrictions in the county where I lived, but then they came up with more new laws about 9 or 10 years ago that required a permit if you moved enough dirt to change the drainage off your property.

 

[Dirthog]

Here in Pa they are starting to fine you if you hit anything and you have not called or waited the 3 days I have heard the fine starts at $5000 not sure and don't intend to find out that is over and above the costs to repair the lines! Second I always take pictures anymore before I start any job that way if you do hit something that was marked wrong they can not give you to much grief about where the flags were. Hit a gas line that was miss marked last summer and that was the Co first words were you were to close cause they could not see there marks anymore after I ran over the site with the excavator showed him the pictures and that was the end of that. but I did recieve a form from the state to fill out about the accident 6 months later I sent coppies of the photo along with that to>

 

[Bird]

When I was on the board of directors for our rural water company, we had a farmer who was digging a post hole with his tractor and auger to set a fence post and he drilled through the water main. That water "main" was just 2" PVC out there. Anyway, the water company office had sent him a bill for the cost of the repairs, as was customary, but he came to a board meeting to contest or appeal that. It turned out that he had a wooden fence post that was rotting, so he pulled it out, and didn't call for a utility locate because he was putting a new post in the same hole. However, he had decided to go a little deeper with the new post and that's when he hit the water line. Whoever set the old post, many years before, apparently had no problem; they just lacked a couple of inches going deep enough to hit the water line. We let him slide without paying.

 

[JB4310]

A note of caution, they may not really know where the lines run. A couple of years ago, my brother called, had flags on the property and was digging about 8 feet from the neerest flag. When I wandered down, I saw the backhoe shutdown with the buried electric line hanging from the bucket.

Nobody was hurt but there was a lot of arguing about who was at fault.

Yup, they are not always accurate but your protected from liability if you had them mark it and you stayed away from the mark by X number of feet, something like 2-4 feet.
I have 300 feet of direct burial electric service to my back shop and when they marked it they had it going under a 60 year old tree, only problem is the service is less than 30 years old so I know that had to be off by at least 5-10 feet.
My buddy is an excavator and he has pulled up some expensive communications stuff, also an electric line or two, he said it's like lightning, a bright flash and a big bang.

VTcoyote, from my little experience they only mark public utilities not private, so they not going to mark something that goes from your house to the barn, they would only mark the barn service if it has it's own meter and comes from the street, they don't care if you dig up your own stuff.
JB,

 

[Bird]

Yup, they are not always accurate

In 1978, I had an in ground swimming pool put in my backyard. Instead of one buy to mark everything, we had individuals from the different utilities back then. And since that was a new area (our house was less than a year old), a kid from the contractor who installed the plumbing, electric, and HVAC system came to mark the electric. I didn't believe what he marked, so I called back and his boss assured me the kid was right. The very first bucketful the backhoe pulled up included all the electrical wiring. Sparks and fire flew, the backhoe operator jumped off his machine, etc.

The contractor then had nerve enough to want me to pay for re-routing the electrical service. But after we discussed alternatives, they decided they'd do the job at no cost to me.