Digging Safely

State Law requires anyone about to engage in either digging, excavation, moving of earth, demolition or any type of activity that disturbs the earth and therefore possibly involving a danger to damaging underground utility lines, to notify Tennessee One Call, of their intent to dig.  You can simply dial 811 at no charge from any phone, or you can submit locate ticket requests electronically at www.tn811.com.

Tennessee One Call will then notify the member utilities of your proposed work. The utility company locator will then have 72 hours, excluding holidays and weekends, to locate those underground facilities.

While not required by law, in addition to calling Tennessee One Call, you may also want to contact any non-member utilities that you know are in the area of your proposed work.

The locate ticket you receive is only valid for 15 calendar days from the start date indicated on the ticket, after which time, it expires. If you wish to continue working, you must call in at least 3 working days before the expiration date to renew your locate ticket, at which time you will be given a new ticket number.

The complete state law is shown in its entirety by clicking on the link. Do NOT use the above quick summary as the complete representation of the law. Tennessee One-Call would be happy to clarify any questions you might have regarding the law and outline helpful guidelines and procedures of excavation.

The entire law can be found here.
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