Page 57 - CCGA Best Practices Version English

4-0 Excavation Best Practices

4-1: The Notification Service Facility Locate Request

Practice Statement: The excavator requests the location of underground
facilities at each site by notifying the owner through the notification service.
Unless otherwise specified in law, the excavator contacts the notification
service at least five working days prior to beginning excavation procedures.
Practice Description: Increased participation in a notification service
provides for improved communication between excavators and facility owners
necessary to reduce damage.
To avoid unnecessary waste of resources, a project and/or portion of the
work for which a locate has been requested for and not yet provided, has
been cancelled, deferred for an extended period of time, or just altered in
the queue of execution, then that locate request should be cancelled.

4-2: Privately Owned Facility Awareness

Practice Statement - Prior to excavating, the excavator must be aware
that privately owned buried facilities may exist within the work area and
should request the private facility owner (e.g. landowner) to locate his/her
underground facilities.
Practice Description - Privately owned underground facilities may not
be marked by representatives of the public facility owners beyond the
demarcation point of each facility (e.g. Private Property). The private facility
owner is responsible for identifying the location of these buried facilities.
Identification activities may include, but are not limited to: provision of maps,
provision of engineering drawings from previous workings and/or retaining or
authorizing the deployment of a private locator.

4-3: White Lining
Practice Statement: As a method of reducing damages to underground
infrastructure, pre-marking of the boundaries of the work area using white
paint or equivalent (or alternate colour during the winter as noted on the
locate request) by the excavator should be completed prior to locating.
Note: Electronic or virtual pre-marking can be an alternative.

Practice Description: The route of the excavation is marked with white
paint, flags, stakes, or a combination of these to outline the dig site prior to
notifying the notification service and before the locator arrives on the job.
Pre-marking allows the excavators to accurately communicate to owners or
their locator where excavation is to occur. The 1997 safety study “Protecting
Public Safety through Excavation Damage Prevention” by the NTSB reached
the conclusion that pre-marking is a practice that helps prevent excavation
damage.

Canadian Common Ground Alliance
Best Practices Version 3.0 – October 2018
51