Aug. 11 Serves as 811 Reminder

Aug. 11 is almost here, and Diggers Hotline hopes that the 8/11 date on the calendar will serve as a natural reminder for residents to dial 811 prior to any digging project. Every few minutes an underground utility line is damaged because someone decided to dig without first dialing 811, which can lead to utility outages, expensive repairs or catastrophic consequences.

Dialing 811 puts you in contact with Diggers Hotline to make a free request to have the location of buried utility lines marked with paint or flags. Requests can also be made online.

Every digging project, no matter the size, requires contacting Diggers Hotline to ensure underground utilities have been marked before digging.  Diggers Hotline takes your job site information and passes it on to Wisconsin utilities that mark the location of their buried lines.

Installing a mailbox, landscaping projects, building a deck or laying a patio are all examples of digging projects that require contacting Diggers Hotline before starting.

It doesn’t matter how deep the digging project will go. The depth of utility lines can vary for a number of reasons, such as erosion, previous digging projects and uneven surfaces. Utility lines need to be marked because even when digging only a few inches, the risk of striking an underground utility line still exists.

Everyone in Wisconsin is required to contact Diggers Hotline at least three working days before they start a digging project.  Diggers Hotline can be reached via phone by dialing 811, or http://www.diggershotline.com/