With Aug. 11th almost here, Call Before You Dig, Inc. hopes this date, 8/11, will serve as a natural reminder for residents to call 811 prior to any digging project to have underground utility lines marked to avoid unintentionally hitting them. Call Before You Dig is a non-profit organization comprised of all public utility companies and municipalities within Connecticut overseen by PURA. CBYD is a free service that provides homeowners and professional excavators with a toll free call by dialing 8-1-1 for locating and marking underground facilities by its members, and calling CBYD before you dig is the law in CT.
Call Before You Dig, Inc. reminds Connecticut residents that August 11 (8/11) is a convenient reminder to call 811 before digging in your yard! Smart, safe digging is no accident.
With Aug. 11th almost here, Call Before You Dig, Inc. hopes this date, 8/11, will serve as a natural reminder for residents to call 811 prior to any digging project to have underground utility lines marked to avoid unintentionally hitting them. Call Before You Dig is a non-profit organization comprised of all public utility companies and municipalities within Connecticut overseen by PURA. CBYD is a free service that provides homeowners and professional excavators with a toll free call by dialing 8-1-1 for locating and marking underground facilities by its members, and calling CBYD before you dig is the law in CT.
With residents working from home because of Governor Lamont’s Executive Order for Social Distancing due to the Coronavirus and COVID-19, more home DIY projects are underway this Summer and they can bring the danger of exposure to hits on vital public utility lines with them. Digging without knowing what is below the surface risks causing property damage, injury and even death, according to representatives of Call Before You Dig.
Anthony R. Willemain, the Call Before You Dig Center Manager, stated, “If you are digging with power or mechanized equipment, it is the law to “Call Before You Dig!” Even if you are excavating by hand, it is smart and safe to “Call Before You Dig!” April brings warm weather to Connecticut. Construction crews are gearing up for the dig season and homeowners are anxious to begin those outdoor projects. That is why April is “Call Before You Dig Month,” reminding everyone of the importance to know what’s below! Notify CBYD two working days in advance to have the location of buried utility pipes and cable lines located and marked out. Contact us at www.CBYD.com or call “811” to avoid digging accidents.”
When calling 811 or executing an e-ticket from the cbyd.com website, the federally-mandated national "Call Before You Dig" number, homeowners are connected to Call Before You Dig, the local one-call center in Hamden CT, which notifies the appropriate utility companies of their intent to dig. Professional locators are sent to the requested digging site to mark the locations of underground lines with flags or spray paint. Call Before You Dig requires a call/ticket 2 full working days before the planned project start date.
Striking a single line can cause injury, repair costs, fines and inconvenient outages or worse. Every digging project, no matter how large or small, warrants a call to 811. Installing a mailbox, putting in a fence or basketball hoop, building a deck and planting trees are all examples of digging projects that need a call to 811 before starting. Some of these stories were recently featured on WPLR’s Chaz & AJ in the Morning show: We start at 16:40: https://www.wplr.com/2020/07/16/podcast-thursday-july-16-cts-bear-problem-why-you-call-before-you-dig-dumb-ass-news/
CBYD has a user-friendly damage reporting tool on their website along with a user guide. Damage Access is a web-based tool that allows anyone to report both damages to underground utility facilities and violations of safe excavating practices that did not result in asset damage. Please see this link to Damage Access for more information: https://www.cbyd.com/damage-reporting. Anthony Willemain, Center Manager and Stephen Rieben, Manager, also co-wrote information for the public about a new tool that will be available soon, called Positive Response as well, so we will send an update. Please see our article in the Spring Edition of CONNstruction Magazine: https://www.connstruction-digital.com/ctcq/0120_spring_2020/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=1569751#articleId1569751
Visit www.cbyd.com for more information on 811 and the call-before-you-dig process.