A. Except as otherwise provided in Section 40-360.28, subsection E, obtaining information as required by this article does not excuse any person making any excavation from doing so in a careful and prudent manner, nor shall it excuse such persons from liability for any damage or injury resulting from their negligence.

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 40-360.23

  • Careful and prudent manner: means conducting an excavation in such a way that when the excavation is less than or equal to twenty-four inches from an underground facility that is marked with stakes or paint or in some customary manner, the facility is carefully exposed with hand tools, and the uncovered facility is supported and protected. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
  • Excavation: means any operation in which earth, rock or other material in the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means or use of any tools, equipment or explosives and includes, without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering, boring, tunnelling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing and driving. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
  • Person: means any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, homeowners' association, municipality, governmental unit, department or agency and shall include any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
  • Underground facilities operator: means a public utility, municipal corporation, landlord or other person having the right to bury underground facilities in any public street, alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or public utility easement, in any apartment community or mobile home park or pursuant to any express or implied private property easement. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21
  • Underground facility: means any item of personal property that is buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, sewage, electronic, telephonic or telegraphic communications, electric energy, oil, gas or other substances, and shall include but not be limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments and those portions of poles and their attachments below ground except cross culverts or similar roadway drainage facilities and landscape irrigation systems of two inches in diameter or less. See Arizona Laws 40-360.21

B. Except as otherwise provided in Section 40-360.22, subsection D, after markings have been made pursuant to Section 40-360.22, an excavator shall notify either the underground facilities operator or an organization designated by the underground facilities operator if the excavator encounters an underground facility that has not been located and marked or has been marked in the wrong location.

C. An excavator or an underground facilities operator shall not move or obliterate markings made pursuant to this article or fabricate markings in an unmarked location for the purpose of concealing or avoiding liability for a violation of or noncompliance with this article.

 

 

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