Page 11 - AL811

Alabama’s Underground Damage Prevention legislation has been enacted since 1994. Over the years there have been amendments 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.
In §37-15-9 (a) the law addresses the reporting of damages which may occur as part of excavation.
“(a) Each person responsible for any excavation or demolition operation
that results in any damage to an underground facility, immediately upon discovery of such damage, shall notify the operator of such facility of the location of the damage, or the “One-Call Notification System” operating on behalf the underground facility owner, and shall allow the operator reasonable time to accomplish any necessary repairs before completing the excavation or
demolition in the immediate area of the damage to such facility.”
These damages are reported to Alabama 811. The types of locate requests are transmitted to our members noted
as “damage” tickets. These are for reporting purposes only to make the facilities aware that a damage has occurred and do not indicate the need to mark facilities. It is best to indicate which facility type has been damaged
to better identify which facility
needs to be aware of and dispatch repair personnel if necessary.
Only approved users are allowed to enter damages online through our web portal. Most damages
need to be called into
AL811 directly to allow for additional information to be obtained other than routine utility marking requests. Additional information that will be asked include:
Type of Line damaged: Was the Line Marked:
Is there a service outage:
What equipment was being used when the damage occurred:
Is excavation work being held up due to the damage
Previous Ticket:
Additional information on the Underground Damage Prevention law can be found at https://al811.com/law/.
Legislative Corner
Damage Reporting
2024, Issue 2 Alabama 811 • 9