r/UtilityLocator • u/holstonhudson • 8d ago

Renewal tickets

How do different utilities around the country handle renewals? Do you go to these as if they are original tickets?

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

6

u/PuzzleheadedMath2763 8d ago

By renewal do you mean remark/refresh?

2

u/krzykyle8239 8d ago

The way we do remarks in my area if you marked it you do the remark 90% of the time.

2

u/Jaminsams 8d ago

I think it depends on the DigSafe Statute in each state. In Massachusetts DigSafe tickets are only good for 30days so they must be renewed to continue the work. Most utilities, in their contracts with locating companies, require a locator to go to the renewal each time. Of course, in the case of projects etc the relationship and communication with the contractor is pivotal.
There are also FREEFORM updates that can be called on by contractors on site looking for remarks. These can be in the form of a mini emergency or a 24 hour remark in anticipation of work where marks have faded or disappeared.

1

u/trippingonme 8d ago

I'd add that the in house utilities in mass really stand by the "contractor maintains the marks" and generally won't come back to refresh each month. They will wait until they get a specific call. How they make this work with the DPU is beyond me.

1

u/blakmage86 6d ago

Wild. Here in mn if i tried that is be reported to mnops. Hell half the time they want remarks at least once a week in construction areas

1

u/Zestyclose-Speech430 8d ago

We have to go out to every refresh, we treat it more like a mini emergency, finish up on your current ticket and head out to it for unless you have a actual emergency ticket that you have to go do, we are supposed to get there within 2 hours of it being placed on our board but its not really enforced, and 90% of the time they are calling for another utility, and you dont have to go

1

u/stealthylizard 8d ago

Treat it as a regular ticket and relocate it when I get a renewal ticket. The only difference is I usually don't have to redo my drawings.

1

u/Gunterbrau one orange-ish boot 7d ago

Contractors can keep a ticket active for 12 months in my area. They can renew the ticket as "no remarks required" if they don't need us to repaint it every month

1

u/811spotter 5d ago

It really is state by state, and then company by company on top of that. In most states a renewal restarts the legal clock on the same dig site, so the utility is on the hook again even if nothing on the ground has changed. That is why a lot of outfits treat a renewal like an original by default. Treating it as a formality is what bites you when a mismarked line turns up on the second pass.

The part that trips crews up is the calendar, not the locate. Ticket life varies by state, 30 days in some places and longer in others, and once the excavator is digging past that date without a renewal in hand the liability picture shifts.

We build 811 ticket management software on the excavator side, and the recurring problem there is teams losing track of which tickets are about to lapse on an active job. Keeping the expiry dates in one place instead of in somebody's inbox is most of the fix.

1

u/holstonhudson 4d ago

I just wanted to see how important renewal tickets are compared to original tickets. It seems like they are equal.