Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act

The act governs excavation work near underground facilities such as buried utility lines, establishing what an excavator must do before breaking ground and what the operators of those facilities owe in return. Its central mechanism is a statewide notification center — run by a nonprofit corporation with a board of directors and funded by fees and charges on participating operators — that takes excavation notices through a toll-free number and call router system and passes them to the operators whose facilities may be affected. Excavators must participate and give notice, operators must respond and maintain their participation, and the act carves out exemptions and emergency exceptions while backing the duties with civil penalties, warning letters, and required safety training.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.