calling in a larger locate then is needed...

[Danger]

I know this is a constant gripe for most everyone... but lets hear your most outlandish locate requests... I have 2 right now.... one is about 3 miles of road, and 46 acres where a school is being built, and the other is 4 miles of DOT locate both sides of the road and 100' of every intersection.... for sidewalks.... utilities to locate... comcast, power, gas and ATT...

In addition to your stories... lets hear some ideas as to how to cure this problem....

[Bad Robot]

The second largest city in Illinois for curb and gutter work. The entire city. Got this fixed pretty quick though.

[Bad Robot]

I know this is a constant gripe for most everyone... but lets hear your most outlandish locate requests... I have 2 right now.... one is about 3 miles of road, and 46 acres where a school is being built, and the other is 4 miles of DOT locate both sides of the road and 100' of every intersection.... for sidewalks.... utilities to locate... comcast, power, gas and ATT...

In addition to your stories... lets hear some ideas as to how to cure this problem....

Once again, the one call laws need changing. They were never designed for bore rigs, or much of today's technology. The utilities will fight tooth and nail to make sure this never happens, too high a cost for them, and they wouldn't be able to make everyone tap dance like they do.

[locatelocatelocate]

naperville one of the largest cities in il? i had no clue. easy ticket that was for me. got to watch out for them gas services under the sidewalk, those get popped all the time every where

[HWYRIPR]

Once again, the one call laws need changing. They were never designed for bore rigs, or much of today's technology. The utilities will fight tooth and nail to make sure this never happens, too high a cost for them, and they wouldn't be able to make everyone tap dance like they do.

I love the "tap dance" comment....so true!! Virginia has a 1 mile limit per ticket. But it’s not really defined whether that’s linear or squared. However the excavator can call in as many tickets as they like in one day. Now the law does state a timeframe in which they should be able to complete the work, but you can imagine how loosely that is enforced. I’m not saying the wind is not blowing that way from what I see and hear from our SCC, but it's going to be some time before we get to the Locator Utopia I would like to see And by that I just mean a simple thing like being a respected part of the process and allowed the time to give the service that is expected of me....but that's crazy talk!!!!

[BD2U]

TXDOT contractors like to call in 26 to 30 mile long projects at one time. Just to install signs along the road. Instead of calling in specific work areas, they just call for ALL utilities to be marked along the entire stretch R.O.W. to R.O.W. That or we have a contractor out this way that will call in multiple blocks just to install a manhole.

[Bad Robot]

naperville one of the largest cities in il? i had no clue. easy ticket that was for me. got to watch out for them gas services under the sidewalk, those get popped all the time every where

Naperville is the fifth largest city in Illinois. Aurora is the second. Big, big difference.

[headcipher]

In Colorado we have the same problems at times, but the on-call laws here help. The law states that any request in excess of 600 feet is to be considered an extended job. On extended jobs the law requires 600 ft a day or 1 hour a day, whichever comes first. Check your local state laws you may have similar laws.

The laws here allow me to get contractors who over call to narrow things down. I tell them that if I start with sewer, then h2o, then electric, then fiber, then gas all at 600 ft a day then well that 4000 ft or so will be definitely marked in a couple of weeks, or they could just tell me what exactly they need to do.

[JACKnBORE]

I can just picture some arrogant old county road commisioner at a joint meet telling you to mark up 30 miles for placing signs. Try to argue your point and he'll pull out his cell phone and have you fired within the hour cause he's the governors cousin or some crap like that. Recently in Wayne Co., IL they asked for every intersection in the County to be marked for road signs. Stimulus money sat on for a year. When they were printing that money they shold've printed some extra to cover utility company expenses for locating. Private company held a joint meet for work and gave no consideration other than maps with numbered order to go in. We will never win. The only locators that ever have a say so in my opinion are the ones that still do it in house. Higher paid and their managers don't want them out doing unnecassary things.

[TheCableVine]

Most laws will have something in there that says that a contractor cannot dig if you contact them and let them know the job is incomplete. I think if you do a reasonable length and then let the contractor know then he is obligated by law to not dig.

[BD2U]

Yes, thats true about letting them know and all. It just would be nice if these guys would come to realize that they are not the only people in town working and have a little consideration. We have a contractor out this way who used to locate with us. Now he is the one calling in the locates. If he has a large job, then he will break it down into smaller tickets instead of a Large one. Then ya just call him and let him know the situation and he works with us real well.

[FiosKing]

i had one last summer 8.2 miles in a state park...

[TMO]

Our guy out in Erath county topped my longest one of 51 miles of pipeline, his was called in for 197 miles of pipeline. Contractor was setting Carsonite markers on an adjacent line that parallels ours. Our DPC took care of us on that one.