Policies: Locate Subsurface Utilities
Last Updated
Wisconsin state statute 182.0175 requires a party to notify Diggers Hotline and owners of private facilities before excavating, grading, trenching, digging, drilling, boring, auguring, tunneling, scraping, driving stakes, or plowing in cable or pipe into earth (hereafter referred to simply as “excavating).
UW-Eau Claire privately owns many subsurface utility systems on campus lands as well as in street right-of-ways adjoining campus lands.
UW-Eau Claire staff that are planning “excavating”
- Submit a work request to Facilities for a “Utilities Locate” (see Timeline below).
- Immediately following, complete a “Request for Utilities Locate” form (copy attached)
- Clearly mark project area with highlighter on a map of the area
- Scan in color and email the completed form and map to FACMGT50@uwec.edu
Timeline
The work request and Request for Utilities Locate form must reach Facilities no later than 5 working days prior to the planned excavation date.
Funding
Utilities locate work associated with GPR-funded projects will be funded by Facilities. The requestor shall physically outline the “project area” in the field with white paint as well and white excavation if necessary.
After Request is Submitted
- The UW-Eau Claire Facilities Electrical/Plumbing/Mechanical Shop Supervisor, upon receiving the work order, will notify both Diggers Hotline and Facilities Shops of the need to locate.
- The shop technicians will mark utilities in the “project area” with colored paint (see paint guide at end of this document).
- The Supervisor will in turn inform the requestor of the “legal start date” (assigned by Diggers Hotline) that is the earliest that “excavation” can begin.
“Excavation” may begin between the “legal start date” and ten calendar days following, as long as the locate marks remain intact and visible. If the “excavation” is delayed beyond ten days, or locate marks are no longer visible, request a “relocate” by contacting the Facilities Workflow Desk at (715) 836-3411.
Contractors and engineers planning “excavating”
Contractors and engineers planning excavating on UW-Eau Claire campus lands or in the right-of-way of adjoining streets are required to comply with the law and notify Diggers Hotline directly. By law, they are also required to notify UW-Eau Claire Facilities as well.
To satisfy this requirement, a contractor or engineer must follow the same procedure just outlined but submit the filled out “Request for Utilities Locate Form” to the Campus Project Manager they are already working with.
The Campus Project Manager will create the work request needed.
To satisfy this requirement, a contractor or engineer must follow the same procedure just outlined but submit the filled out “Request for Utilities Locate Form” to the Campus Project Manager they are already working with.
The Campus Project Manager will create the work request needed.
Both Diggers Hotline and UWEC Facilities employ the following color codes for its flags and markings:
- White: Excavation/Digging area
- Red: electrical, signal, and communication utilities
- Yellow: gas, steam, and condensate utilities
- Blue: water, irrigation, and chilled water utilities
- Green: sanitary sewer, storm sewer, and drainage utilities
- Clear: no utilities present in the defined “excavation” area for the type of utility(s)
“Excavating” within 18 inches of either side of a marked utility must be done only with hand digging.