Page 12 - Louisiana 811 Magazine 2018 Issue 3

Brent's
®
orlring around underground power lines can be extremely
dangerous. Thats why its so important to contact 811 prior
to any Excavariun pm]2ct. But }usl as important as calling
or clicking 811 is to respect those made and dig with care
avoiding using mechanized equipment within the tolerance zone. A
personal story I'd like to share about worlring around this particular
underground utility comes to mind.
whenl built my home more than 16 years ago, l personally witnessed
several ui the underground utilities being installed. our lot didn't have a
single tree on it so my wife and ldecided to plant five crepe mynle trees
along our property line. laeing in damage prevention 7 and having learned
fmm a prior incident — 1 called in my locate request. Keep in mind l had
the hue crepe myrtle trees lined up where i wanted to plant them and they
were contained in buckets.
2 l waited patiently tor the mark-by time and was fairly certain the locationsl
0 had in mind to plant these trees were not in mnfllcl with any underground
utilities. Much to my amazement, l walked out to view the markings on the
0 ground a tew days later and round that the underground electric line ran
_i directly in the path of the proposed excavation. As a matter ui fact, seyeral
. _l ui the buckets containing the trees were painted red indicating the power
line was below: wow. was l surprised: l was very coniident my electric line
< tank a diiierent route between the transiormer and my meter. Needless
0 to say, it could've been disastrous ifl had started digging without a valid
Lu locate request.
Q Z The point or the story is to NEVER assume you know where underground
utilities are located. And never assume that the utilities are buried deep
0 even it yuu're digging down a couple of teet or so.
< Take the time and do what's right. call or click B11, wait tor the mark-by
_l time, respect the made and dig with care. You'll lie glad you didl .
1a . Lomslanl: arr rots Issue 3