Oregon One-Call
Note: This material has been prepared for use in Utility Contractor and Utility Claims Employee Training. For Legal Interpretations to be used in actual case settings, please consult your attorney or check with the Bar Association, in this state, for an appropriate referral to a qualified attorney.
OREGON ADMINISTRATIVE RULES
CHAPTER 952 - OREGON UTILITY NOTIFICATION CENTER
DIVISION 1
952-001-0010 Definitions
952-001-0020 Project Plans to Notify Excavator or Requirements of Law
952-001-0030 Permits to Notify Excavator of Requirements of Law
952-001-0040 Pre-Marking Required by the Excavator; Exemption
952-001-0050 Excavator to Give Notice of Proposed Work; Exemption
952-001-0060 When Excavator May Give Less Than Forty-Eight (48) Business Day Hour Notice
952-001-0070 Operators to Mark Underground Facilities or Notify Excavator That None Exist
952-001-0080 Operators to Respond to Notifications Requesting Design Information
952-001-0090 Delay of Excavation Until Response from Facility Operators; Duty of Excavator to Use Reasonable Care; Damage to Facilites
952-001-0010 Definitions
(1) "Business day" means any 24-hour day other than a Saturday, Sunday or federal or state legal holiday.
(2) "Damage" means harm to, or destruction of underground facilities including, but not limited to, the weakening of structural, lateral or subjacent support; the penetration, impairment or destruction of any coating, housing or other protective device; or the denting of, penetration into or severance of underground facilities.
(3) "Designer" means any person who prepares a drawing for construction or other project which requires excavation or demolition.
(4) "Emergency" means an occurrence involving an immediate danger, demanding prompt action to prevent loss of life, or to mitigate damage to property, or to prevent interruption of essential public services (as determined by an emergency response agency or the facility operator) or to prevent a customer service outage (as determined by the facility operator).
(5) "Excavation" means any operation in which earth, rock or other material on or below the ground is moved or otherwise displaced by any means, except sidewalk, road and ditch maintenance less than 12 inches in depth that does not lower the original grade or original ditch flow line. "Excavation" does not include the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes, as defined in ORS 215.203(2), conducted on private property that is not within the boundaries of a recorded right-of-way or easement for underground facilities.
(6) "Excavator" means any person who engages in excavation.
(7) "Locatable underground facilities" means underground facilities which can be marked with reasonable accuracy.
(8) "Mark" or "marking" means an indication, from the use of stakes, paint or other clearly identifiable material, to show the field location or absence of underground facilities at a proposed work site. A "mark" or "marking" also includes permanent marking devices, such as disks, posts or signs, placed to show the location of underground facilities.
(9) "Operator" means any person, municipal corporation, political subdivision of the state with control over underground facilities. Operator includes any person, as defined in ORS 756.010, having the right to bury underground facilities in any public right-of-way, or in any utility easement.
(10) "Oregon Utility Notification Center" (Center) means the state agency that administers a statewide system through which a person can notify operators of underground facilities of proposed excavations and can request that the underground facilities be marked.
(11) "Project plans" mean any drawings, specifications or any other documents prepared in anticipation of work involving excavation.
(12) "Reasonable accuracy" means location, within twenty-four (24) inches, of the outside lateral dimensions of both sides of an underground facility.
(13) "Response" means action taken by operators of underground facilities to:
(a) Mark or identify by other means the location of its locatable underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation;
(b) Notify the excavator that there are unlocatable underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation;
(c) Notify the excavator that there are no underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation; or
(d) Notify the excavator that there are underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation which are at a depth greater than the proposed excavation.
(14) "Underground facilities" means items partially or entirely below the surface of the ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of electrical energy, water, sewage, petroleum products, gas, gaseous vapors or hazardous liquids, or the transmission of electronic, telephonic, telegraphic or cable communications. Such items include, but are not limited to, pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments and those parts of poles or anchors that are underground.
(15) "Unlocatable underground facilities" mean underground facilities that cannot be marked with reasonable accuracy, including nonconductive sewers and nonmetallic underground facilities that have no trace wires.
952-001-0020 Project Plans to Notify Excavator of Requirements of Law
All project plans shall contain the following statement: ATTENTION: Oregon law requires you to follow rules adopted by the Oregon Utility Notification Center. Those rules are set forth in OAR 952-001-0010 through OAR 952-001-0090. You may obtain copies of the rules by calling the center. (Note: the telephone number for the Oregon Utility Notification Center is (503) 232-1987).
952-001-0030 Permits to Notify Excavator of Requirements of Law
Any entity authorized to issue permits for construction which requires excavation shall include on such permits the language set out in OAR 952-001-0020.
952-001-0040 Pre-Marking Required by the Excavator; Exemption
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this rule, prior to notifying the Oregon Utility Notification Center, an excavator shall pre-mark with the color white the immediate area of the proposed excavation within both the public rights-of-way and underground easements.
(2) An excavator need not pre-mark as required in paragraph (1) of this rule if:
(a) The operator can determine precisely the direction, length and location of the proposed excavation by referring to a locate ticket; or
(b) The excavator and operator have had a meeting prior to the beginning of the proposed project, at the construction site for the exchange of information required under paragraph (1) of this rule.
952-001-0050 Excavator to Give Notice of Proposed Work; Exemption
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this rule, at least two (2) business days, but not more than ten (10) business days before commencing an excavation, the excavator shall notify the Oregon Utility Notification Center of the date and location of the proposed excavation, and the type of work to be performed.
(2) The notice requirement of paragraph (1) of this section shall not apply if the excavation is in response to an emergency, or if all of the following apply:
(a) The excavator is a tenant or an owner of private property;
(b) The excavation is on private property of that owner or tenant;
(c) The excavation is less than twelve (12) inches in depth; and
(d) The excavation is not within an established easement.
(3) An excavator, when giving notice in compliance with paragraph (1) of this rule, shall furnish information as to how the excavator can be contacted.
952-001-0060 When Excavator May Give Less Than Forty-Eight (48) Business Day Hour Notice
An excavator may provide less than two (2) business days (48) hours prior notice if:
(1) The excavator is responding to an emergency, so long as the excavator notifies the Oregon Utility Notification Center immediately and so long as the excavator takes reasonable care to protect underground facilities;
(2) The excavator has an agreement with each operator of underground facilities that marks will be provided on a regular basis as the excavator progresses through a project; or
(3) The excavator discovers an underground facility in an area where the operator of underground facilities had previously indicated there were no facilities.
952-001-0070 Operators to Mark Underground Facilities or Notify Excavator That None Exist
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (3) of the rule, within two business days (48 hours) after the excavator notifies the Oregon Utility Notification Center of a proposed excavation, the operator of the underground facilities shall:
(a) Mark with reasonable accuracy all of its locatable underground facilities within the area of proposed excavation. All marks shall indicate the name, initials or logo of the operator of the underground facilities, and the width of the facility if it is greater than two (2) inches;
(b) Provide the excavator the best description available to the operator of the unlocatable underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation including as-constructed drawings, or other facility maps that are maintained by the facility operator;
(c) Notify the excavator that in the area of the proposed excavation there are underground facilities which are not marked because those facilities are at a depth greater than the excavator plans to excavate; or
(d) Notify the excavator that the operator does not have any underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation.
(2) If an excavator uses offset marking, the excavator shall correctly measure the amount of offset, so that the excavator can reestablish the location of underground facilities where originally marked.
(3) If the excavator notifies the operator of underground facilities discovered during an excavation in response to an emergency, the operator of underground facilities shall comply with subsection (1) of this section as soon as possible.
(4) Underground facilities shall be marked in accordance with the following designated color code:
(a) RED -- Electric power lines, cables or conduit, and lighting cables;
(b) YELLOW -- Gas, oil, steam, petroleum, or other hazardous liquid or gaseous materials;
(c) ORANGE -- Communications, cable TV, alarm or signal lines, cables or conduits;
(d) BLUE -- Water, irrigation, and slurry lines;
(e) GREEN -- Sewers, drainage facilities or other drain lines;
(f) WHITE -- Pre-marking of the outer limits of the proposed excavation or marking the centerline and width of proposed lineal installations of buried facilities;
(g) PINK -- Temporary Survey Markings.
(5) In areas of ongoing excavation or construction operators shall mark newly installed underground facilities immediately upon placement.
(6) Except while making minor repairs to existing non-conductive, unlocatable facilities, an operator burying non-conductive, unlocatable facilities within the public rights-of-way or utility easements shall place a tracer wire or other similar conductive marking tape or device with the facility to allow for later location and marking.
(7) An operator of underground drainage lines is not required to indicate the presence of those facilities if the existence and route of those facilities can be determined from the presence of other visible facilities, such as manholes, catch basins, inlets, outlets, junction boxes, storm drains or permanent marking devices.
952-001-0080 Operators to Respond to Notifications Requesting Design Information
Within ten (10) business days after a designer notifies the Oregon Utility Notification Center of a proposed project, the operator of the underground facilities shall:
(1) Mark with reasonable accuracy all of its locatable underground facilities within the area of proposed excavation. All marks shall indicate the name, initials or logo of the operator of the underground facilities, and the width of the facility if it is greater than two (2) inches;
(2) Provide the excavator the best description available to the operator of the unlocatable underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation including as-constructed drawings, or other facility maps that are maintained by the facility operator; or
(3) Contact the person requesting design information and agree on a time, prior to the beginning of the proposed project, for exchange of the information required under paragraph (1) or paragraph (2) of this rule.
952-001-0090 Delay of Excavation Until Response from Facility Operators; Duty of Excavator to Use Reasonable Care; Damage to Facilites
(1) An excavator shall not commence an excavation which requires notice under these rules until the excavator has received a response from each operator of underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation, or until at least two (2) business days (48 hours) have elapsed from the time the excavator notified the Oregon Utility Notification Center.
(2) Once underground facilities have been marked, the excavator shall:
(a) Maintain marks during the excavation period to ensure that the original marks remain effective for the life of the project and can be re-established;
(b) Stop excavating in the vicinity of the underground facility and notify the Oregon Utility Notification Center to have the route re-marked as specified in these rules and, if prior to or during the excavation process, the marking and/or route of any underground facility is removed or no longer visible; and
(c) Employ hand tools or other such non-invasive methods to determine the exact location of the underground facility when excavation is to be made within the reasonable accuracy zone.
(3) The excavator shall provide such lateral and subjacent support for underground facilities as may be reasonably necessary for the protection of such facilities.
(4) If the excavator causes or observes damage to underground facilities, the excavator shall notify the operator of the underground facilities immediately. If the damage causes an emergency, the excavator shall also notify all appropriate local public safety agencies immediately by calling 911 and shall take reasonable steps to insure the public safety. The excavator shall not bury damaged underground facilities without the consent of the operator of the damaged underground facilities.
(5) If an excavator discovers underground facilities in an area where the operator of the underground facilities had previously stated there were no underground facilities, the excavator shall, prior to continuing excavation, notify the Oregon Utility Notification Center. After providing notification, the excavator shall use extreme care in the affected area.
