TITLE 55

PROPERTY IN GENERAL

CHAPTER 22

UNDERGROUND FACILITIES DAMAGE PREVENTION

55-2205.  Permit compliance — Notice of excavation — Response to notice — Compensation for failure to comply — Exemptions. (1) Before commencing excavation, the excavator shall:

(a)  Comply with other applicable law or permit requirements of any public agency issuing permits;

(b)  Pre-mark on-site the path of excavation with white paint or, as the circumstances require, other reasonable means that will set out clearly the path of excavation. An excavator need not pre-mark as required in this subsection if:

(i)   The underground facility owner or its agent can determine the location of the proposed excavation by street address or lot and block by referring to a locate ticket; or

(ii)  The excavator and underground facility owner have had a meeting prior to the beginning of the proposed excavation at the excavation site for the exchange of information required under this subsection.

(c)  Provide notice of the scheduled commencement of excavation to all underground facility owners through a one-number notification service. If no one-number notification service is available, notice shall be provided individually to those owners of underground facilities known to have or suspected of having underground facilities within the area of proposed excavation. The notice shall be communicated by the excavator to the one-number notification service or, if no one-number notification service is available, to the owners of underground facilities not less than two (2) business days nor more than ten (10) business days before the scheduled date for commencement of excavation, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the parties.

(2)  Upon receipt of the notice provided for in this section, the underground facility owner or the owner’s agent shall locate and mark its locatable underground facilities with reasonable accuracy, as defined in section 55-2202, Idaho Code, by surface-marking the location of the facilities. If there are identified but unlocatable underground facilities, the owner of such facilities or the owner’s agent shall locate and mark the underground facilities in accordance with the best information available to the owner of the underground facilities. The owner of the underground facility or the owner’s agent providing the information shall respond no later than two (2) business days after the receipt of the notice or before the excavation time set forth in the excavator’s notice, at the option of the underground facility owner, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the parties. Excavators shall not excavate until all known facilities have been marked. Once marked by the owner of the underground facility, or the owner’s agent, the excavator is responsible for maintaining the markings. Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the parties, maintained markings shall be valid for purposes of the notified excavation for a period of no longer than four (4) consecutive weeks following the date of notification as long as it is reasonably apparent that site conditions have not changed so substantially as to invalidate the markings. If excavation has not commenced within three (3) weeks from the original notice to underground facility owners through the one-number notification service, the excavator shall reinitiate notice in accordance with this section.

(a)  Excavators shall have the right to receive compensation from the owner of the underground facility for costs incurred if the owner of the underground facility does not locate its facilities in accordance with this chapter.

(b)  An owner of an underground facility shall have the right to receive compensation for costs incurred in responding to an excavation notice given less than two (2) business days prior to the excavation except for notices given for emergency excavations under subsection (4) of this section and unidentified facilities discovered under subsection (5) of this section.

(3)  An end user shall not be required to locate or mark any service lateral. An underground facility owner who provides any utility service or commodity via a service lateral shall locate and mark the service lateral in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to impose an indemnification obligation prohibited by law on any public agency as defined in section 67-2327, Idaho Code, or to alter the liability of any public agency as provided by law, including article VIII of the constitution of the state of Idaho.

(4)(a)  Emergency excavations are exempt from the time requirements for notice as provided in this section when an excavator determines a delay caused by providing notice would cause an imminent risk to life, health, or property; however, an excavator is required to provide notice of emergency excavation in all other emergency situations.

(b)  Upon receiving notice of an emergency excavation, an underground facility owner or its designated agent shall:

(i)   Within one (1) hour of receiving the notice of emergency excavation, attempt to contact the excavator at the telephone number provided in the notice of emergency excavation to provide any information concerning underground facilities within the emergency excavation area and the anticipated response time of the underground facility owner or its designated agent; and

(ii)  Unless the underground facilities owner informs the excavator that it is impossible or impracticable under the circumstances and provides the excavator with an expected arrival time that is as soon as reasonably feasible, or if the parties agree to a different arrival time, arrive at the emergency excavation site within two (2) hours of receiving the notice of emergency excavation to locate and mark underground facilities within the emergency excavation area.

(c)  If an underground facility owner or its designated agent is unable to locate and mark underground facilities identified in the notice of emergency excavation, the underground facility owner shall immediately attempt to notify the excavator at the telephone number provided in the notice of emergency excavation.

(5)  If the excavator, while performing the excavation, discovers underground facilities (whether active or abandoned) that are not identified or were not located in accordance with subsection (2) of this section, the excavator shall cease excavating in the vicinity of the facility and immediately notify the owner or operator of such facilities, or the one-number notification service. The excavator shall have the right to receive compensation from the underground facility owner for standby cost (based on standby rates made publicly available) incurred as a result of waiting for the underground facility owner or the owner’s agent to arrive at the work site to identify the unidentified facilities and provided that if the underground facility owner or the owner’s agent supplies the locate information required under subsection (2) of this section within eight (8) hours of the time that the excavator notifies the underground facility owner of facilities not previously located, the excavator’s compensation for delay of the excavation project shall be limited to actual costs or two thousand dollars ($2,000), whichever is less.

History:

[(55-2205) 55-2203, added 1990, ch. 351, sec. 1, p. 941; am. 1991, ch. 170, sec. 2, p. 411; am. 2002, ch. 351, sec. 1, p. 1001; am. and redesig. 2016, ch. 325, sec. 5, p. 899; am. 2019, ch. 182, sec. 2, p. 588; am. 2019, ch. 256, sec. 2, p. 766; am. 2023, ch. 191, sec. 2, p. 523.]