Page 6 - Tennessee 811 Magazine 2020 Issue 4

By Jason Kouba
Damage Prevention Liaison Tennessee811
Mike Smith, Heath Consultants
How important is it to you,
as an excavator, to work together with your local utility locators? Do you
find having good communication and working relationships benefits you in completing your work? Let’s look at these relationships and how important they really are.
While utility locators sometimes go unrecognized, they are a vital piece of the puzzle when it comes to completing your job without causing damage to existing underground utilities. Without the marks put down by these locators, excavators have no way to plan work around existing utilities, so working together really starts with the locate request itself. When calling in a locate request, ensure that there is good information and a descriptive work area defined on the ticket. The last thing
4 • Tennessee811 2020, Issue 4
an excavator wants is to show up to a jobsite just to find out the work cannot be started because all the utilities have not been marked within the work area. To avoid any confusion, be sure that the work area is detailed on the locate request and that the contact name
and number on the ticket is somebody familiar with the job that will be able to answer any questions from a utility locator if they arise.
Another important piece of ensuring an excavator’s entire work area is marked is to utilize white markings. Tennessee law requires that excavators pre-mark their work area in white paint to assist utility locators in identifying the work area that needs to be marked. Although there are some exceptions to the law, we encourage excavators to utilize these markings whenever possible. Alongside the work area description on the locate
request, white paint can eliminate any guess work on the part of the locator in determining exactly what needs
to be marked when arriving on site. When we work together and provide as much information as possible, you as an excavator can be assured your jobsite will be marked in its entirety, eliminating one of the causes of delays in your job.
Lastly, we must understand the importance of good communication. Most times, a work area can easily be identified and described on a locate request and the utility locator can get the job marked and be on their way
to the next locate. However, there are times when a work area description makes sense on the locate request,
but upon arriving at the job site those instructions do not match up to what the locator is looking at in the field. This is where the importance of a good