Page 9 - Alabama 811 Magazine 2021 Issue 3

Alabama’s Underground Damage Prevention legislation has been enacted since 1994. Over the years there have been amendment to strengthen and improve the damage prevention program
in our state. We will focus on some of the key terms and sections to ensure a thorough understanding of the underground damage prevention as outline in Alabama state law.
Alabama Statute 37-15-6: Response to Notice of Intent to Excavate or Demolish
This Section, §37-15-6, outlines the responsibilities
of the underground facility owner in responding to notices of intent to excavator – or “locate requests” as is known in the industry. The sections focused on here are subsections (a) (2), (3) and (4) which state:
(2) In lieu of such marking, the operator may request to be present at the site upon commencement of the excavation, demolition, or blasting.
(3) A member operator that states that it does not
have accurate information concerning the exact location of its underground facilities is exempt from the requirements under Section 37-15-6 but shall provide the best available information to the person excavating in order to comply with the requirements of this section. A person excavating is not liable for any damage to an underground facility under the exemption in this subdivision if the excavation or demolition is performed with reasonable care as noted in Section 37-15-8 and the excavator uses detection equipment or other acceptable means to determine the location of the underground facilities.
(4) When an excavator encounters an unmarked underground facility on an excavation site where notice of intent to excavate has been made in accordance with the provisions of Section 37-15-4, and attempts a follow-up or second notice relative to revising the original notice to the "One-Call Notification System" or the operator, all operators thus notified must attempt to contact the excavator within four hours and provide a response relative to any of their known underground facilities, active or abandoned, at the site of the excavation.
This section allows for facility owners to request to be on site during excavation in place of physically marking the excavation site. This request could be due to the facilities not being locatable and they desire to be present to assist
with the locating and identifying the facility as excavation
is occurring to minimize the risk of damage. Because the reality of this situation exists, edits were made to the law several years ago that helps to reduce the potential liability on the excavator if a facility cannot be located and marked for some reason. Section (a) (3) addresses this and does not that reasonable care does need to be used.
If an unmarked underground facility is uncovered, the excavator is required to make a follow up or second notice to the facility owner, using the 811 system, to notify them that an unmarked facility has been discovered. The facility owners are required to respond within a 4 hour period and provide information on any known underground facilities, active or abandoned at the site of the excavation.
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2021, Issue 3
Alabama 811 • 7