Virginia Code 56-265.17: Notification required prior to excavation or demolition; waiting periods; marking of proposed site
A. No person shall make or begin any excavation or demolition without first submitting a locate request to the notification center. Submission of a locate request shall be deemed to be notice to each operator who is a member of the notification center. The notification center shall provide the excavator with the identity of utilities that will be notified of the proposed excavation or demolition. Except for counties, cities, and towns, an excavator who willfully fails to submit a locate request for a proposed excavation or demolition shall be liable to the operator whose facilities are damaged by that excavator, for three times the cost to repair the damaged property, provided that the operator is a member of the notification center. The total amount of punitive damages awarded under this section, as distinguished from actual damages, shall not exceed $10,000 in any single cause of action.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 56-265.17
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- demolition: means any operation by which a structure or mass of material is wrecked, razed, rendered, moved, or removed by means of any tools, equipment, or discharge of explosives which could damage underground utility lines. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Emergency: means a sudden or unexpected occurrence involving a clear and imminent danger, demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss of, or damage to, life, health, property, or essential public services. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- excavation: means any operation in which earth, rock, or other material in the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment, or explosives and includes, without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, dredging, drilling, augering, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing and driving, wrecking, razing, rendering, moving, or removing any structure or mass of material. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Locate request: means the completed delivery of information to the notification center requesting markings for a specified area of excavation or demolition and receipt of the same by the notification center in accordance with this chapter. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- notification: means the completed delivery of information to the person to be notified, and the receipt of same by such person in accordance with this chapter. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Notification center: means an organization whose membership is open to all operators of underground facilities located within the notification center's designated service area, which maintains a data base, provided by its member operators, that includes the geographic areas in which its member operators desire transmissions of notices of proposed excavation, and which has the capability to transmit, within one hour of receipt, notices of proposed excavation to member operators by electronic means. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Operator: means any person who owns, furnishes or transports materials or services by means of a utility line. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Person: means any individual, operator, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, municipality, or other political subdivision, governmental unit, department or agency, and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative thereof. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Positive response: means a code or phrase posted by an operator or locator to the notification center detailing the marking status of a locate request. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Positive response system: means the excavator-operator information exchange system that is required by subsection E of § 56-265. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Utility line: means any item of public or private property which is buried or placed below ground or submerged for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, sewage, telecommunications, electric energy, cable television, oil, petroleum products, gas, or other substances, and includes pipes, sewers, combination storm/sanitary sewer systems, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments, and those portions of poles below ground. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
- Working day: means every day, except Saturdays, Sundays, and legal state and national holidays. See Virginia Code 56-265.15
B. Except in the case of an emergency as defined in § 56-265.15 or in cases subject to subsection C, the excavator shall only commence work:
1. After the excavator has confirmed, by reviewing the positive response information posted on the notification center’s positive response system, that each operator has marked its utility lines, notified the notification center that its utility lines are not present in the area of proposed excavation, or otherwise posted a positive response indicating excavation may begin; or
2. If informed by the notification center that no operators are to be notified.
If any operator fails to respond to the positive response system as required by this chapter, the notification center shall renotify any operator of its failure. This renotification shall not constitute an exemption from the duties of the operator set forth in § 56-265.19.
C. If, after at least 48 hours beginning with 7:00 a.m. the next working day following a locate request or on the date of excavation, the excavator, upon arrival at the site of a proposed excavation, observes clear evidence of the presence of an unmarked utility line in the area of the proposed excavation, the excavator shall not begin excavating until three hours after an additional contact is made to the notification center for the area, provided that no information has been posted to the positive response system or information posted to the positive response system is inconsistent with the clear evidence observed by the excavator.
The operator of any unmarked utility line shall respond within three hours of the excavator’s contact to the notification center. After the clear evidence of an unmarked utility line is addressed pursuant to the additional contact to the notification center, excavation may proceed. During any excavation subject to this subsection, the excavator shall exercise reasonable care at all times to protect underground utility lines and shall be liable for any damages.
D. The excavator’s notification shall be valid for 15 working days from 7:00 a.m. on the next working day following a locate request or 15 working days following a scheduled excavation date provided to the notification center, whichever is later. Three working days before the end of the 15-working-day period, or at any time when line-location markings on the ground become illegible, the excavator intending to excavate shall contact the notification center and request the re-marking of lines. The operator shall re-mark the lines as soon as possible; however, the re-marking of the lines shall be completed within 48 hours from 7:00 a.m. on the next working day following the request for the re-mark. Such re-marking shall be valid for an additional 15 working days from 7:00 a.m. on the next working day following a locate request.
E. If a specific location of the excavation cannot be given as required by subdivision 2 of § 56-265.18, prior to notifying the notification center pursuant to subsection A, the person proposing to excavate or demolish shall mark the route or boundary of the site of the proposed excavation or demolition by means of white paint, if practical.
F. The extent of the excavator’s proposed excavation or demolition shall be a work area that can be excavated within 15 working days from 7:00 a.m. on the next working day following a locate request. The area covered under each locate request shall not exceed one-third of a mile.
1979, c. 291; 1989, c. 448; 1992, c. 192; 1994, c. 890; 2002, c. 841; 2023, cc. 299, 300.