Who is responsible for locates

The Private Locator did not warn the Excavator of any limitation encountered during the private locate. There are many factors that influence the quality of a private locate and it is not quickly determined who is responsible if a buried facility is missed or marked incorrectly.

However, as you can see, communication and the exchange of information is a common thread when determining liability. Most important of all is that each of these parties clearly needs to understand their role in the private locate process. Typically, the Excavator hires the Private Locates Contractor and most of the communication occurs between the Excavator and Private Locator.

The Private Landowner needs to be a part of that conversation, as they must provide important information that can assist the private locate process. In this case, the Excavator acts as the liaison between the Private Landowner and the Private Locator as they are providing a locate for buried infrastructure owned and maintained by the Private Landowner. When all parties contribute to the private locate process, quality increases and the risks are reduced.

Dec 30, Aug 26, Jun 25, Apr 8, Mar 27, This is the information the owners of buried infrastructure will use to contact you. C: Dig Location. This is the address that will receive the locate. Please be as specific as possible with Dig Location.

Ontario One Call prefers that, if possible, you situate your dig site between the two nearest intersecting streets. These would be the two streets that are to your immediate left and right when standing in front of your property.

D: Dig Information. This section tells Ontario One Call what type of work you are doing on the property and where you are doing it. Please be as specific as possible. E: Members Notified. This section tells you who Ontario One Call notified of your intent to excavate.

Review this section thoroughly and ensure that any other infrastructure Owners not mentioned in this section are contacted by you directly. You may be contacted on behalf of that Member within the next 24 hours. The second page of your ticket confirmation consists of disclaimers and information that is important to note. It is your responsibility to ensure that your ticket information is accurate. Please review this information thoroughly and contact if you have any questions.

To view step by step video please click here. Contractors that have an existing contractor ID but do not have a web portal account. Contact our Client Services Department to set up a web portal account.

Email Solutions OntarioOneCall. Excavators request locates for a variety of reasons. If they must excavate on the publicly-owned portion of the property, they may do so without consulting you first. While there is no arguing that you own your private property, the infrastructure buried underneath that property is owned by the respective owner.

It is the policy of most companies and certainly a courtesy to notify you of any planned excavation. The Call Before You Dig service is the backbone of utility damage prevention, is step number one, and MUST be done before any excavation begins on any property.

It is a free service which ensures locate notices are distributed to all underground utility owners with facilities to the service meter. But quite often there are private utilities beyond the service meter that go unmarked and are still a danger to the excavator and field worker.

Being educated on where these private utilities may be buried is the next important step to safe digging. State laws differ, but most require underground facility owners to mark the private lines it is their responsibility to own and maintain.

These lines include water and sewer laterals, power to other structures and lights, irrigation systems, propane and septic systems to name a few. Common areas for private utilities are schools and campuses, hospitals, subdivisions and apartment complexes, government facilities, military installations and solar and wind farms, etc.

If you are still a bit confused, this chart should help you understand the difference:. Locating private utilities is a completely different challenge that requires different technologies and skillsets beyond those used for public locating.

Utility records represent the single biggest challenge in dealing with private systems. On the construction side, challenges include non-metallic lines with no tracer wire, aging and outdated systems, multiple repairs, undocumented construction and installation.