Call 811 Before Digging
If you’re starting any spring outdoor project that involves digging, state utilities are reminding homeowners to call 811 first — it’s National Safe Digging Month and hitting utilities can be dangerous and costly. Experts also suggest planning projects around utility locates and checking basic safety tips before you buy heavy equipment or rent a digger. ( )
A fence post, mailbox, tree, or deck footing can hit a gas, electric, water, or internet line even when the hole is only a few inches deep, which is why utilities push the same first step every spring: contact 811 before you break ground. (call811.com) April is National Safe Digging Month, and Indiana 811 says both contractors and homeowners should contact the state system at least two full working days before any outdoor digging project. (indiana811.org) The 811 system is a routing service, not a repair crew. You call or file online, and the utility owners send locators to mark the approximate path of buried lines with paint or flags before you start. (call811.com) (indiana811.org) Indiana 811 is using this year’s April campaign to push “white lining,” which means marking your planned dig area with white paint or white flags so locators know exactly where your project will happen. (indiana811.org) That extra step saves time because a locator does not have to guess whether you mean the back corner by the shed or the strip along the driveway. Indiana 811 says white lining makes the whole locating process more efficient and can save money. (indiana811.org) The scale of the problem is bigger than most homeowners think. Common Ground Alliance, the national damage-prevention group behind much of the 811 outreach, says its 2024 damage report logged nearly 197,000 reported unique underground utility damages. (commongroundalliance.com) Utilities say the easiest accidents to prevent are the casual ones. Southwest Gas said calls to 811 rose nearly 10 percent in 2024 and underground line damage in its territory fell 15 percent from 2023, but more than one-quarter of its natural-gas line incidents still came from digging without a prior 811 request. (abc15.com) The marks on the ground are not a green light to swing a machine right on top of them. Southwest Gas tells homeowners to hand dig within two feet of utility marks, use rounded or blunt-edge shovels instead of sharp tools, and slow down when soil conditions change. (abc15.com) This is also why home-improvement experts keep telling people to plan the project before renting equipment. Carter Oosterhouse said spring projects are getting more strategic because homeowners are juggling higher costs and limited time, which makes sequencing the work more important than ever. (accessnewswire.com) So the real spring checklist is boring on purpose: mark the area, contact 811, wait for the locate, read the markings, and only then start digging. That order takes a couple of days, but it is faster than cutting power to your block or rupturing a gas line in your own yard. (indiana811.org) (call811.com)
