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National Grid Urges Public To Call 811 Before Digging

National Grid is urging the public to call 811 before doing any outside ground work.

Calling 811 is the law, and it prevents serious personal injury, property damage and service interruptions caused by accidentally digging into electric, gas, telephone, water, sewer or cable facilities. Dig Safely New York, the service behind 811, provides a single point of contact to notify National Grid and other utilities of planned digging, drilling or blasting. The utilities will clearly mark their buried pipes and lines prior to the start of excavation to ensure customer safety and to prevent damage.

The Dig Safely New York service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to receive calls regarding planned excavations.

To further protect excavators, utilities, and the public from the hazards associated with excavation-related accidents, effective May 4, New York state law will require any local government or operator that contracts for excavation to ensure that the excavator has completed an approved training and education program.

National Grid also advise staking precautions to protect underground energy services, including:

¯Never permit anyone to dig near an underground energy source.

¯Do not plant trees, bushes or shrubs near buried utilities, especially electricity and natural gas.

¯Never allow children to dig anywhere near underground natural gas or electricity lines.

¯Protect the markers provided by Dig Safely New York so that contractors can clearly identify potential hazards.

¯Once a project is complete, remove and discard any marking flags or other devices to ensure they aren’t improperly reused.

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