Maryland Dig Law Review
Maryland 811 Law Training Briefing
Call Before You Dig and Safe Excavation Requirements
Training purpose. This briefing summarizes the excavator, facility-owner, and locator requirements in Maryland Public Utilities Article, Title 12, Subtitle 1. Maryland law requires more than an 811 notification. Safe excavation depends on a valid ticket, complete owner responses, preserved markings, careful exposure of facilities, and continued due care throughout the work.
What Maryland Considers Excavation
Maryland defines excavation broadly as moving, removing, or otherwise displacing earth, rock, or material in or on the ground with any tool, equipment, or explosive. Covered work includes grading, trenching, digging, ditching, dredging, drilling, boring, augering, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, pipe bursting, and driving material. The requirement is not limited to deep excavation or large mechanized equipment.
Notify Maryland 811 Before Work Begins
Before excavation or demolition, the person responsible for the work must initiate a ticket through the one-call system. The selected start date may be no sooner than three business days and no later than 12 business days after the ticket is initiated. The request must clearly describe the location, type, and extent of work. The statutory extent of work may not exceed 1,320 feet and must describe work that can be completed during the life of the ticket.
A ticket is valid for 12 business days after its selected start date. The excavator must renew or update the notification when work will continue beyond the authorized period, expands outside the described area, or requires the addition of a temporary excavator. A copy of the ticket must remain available at the site, by any means, for the duration of the ticket.
Wait for Positive Response
The arrival of the selected start date does not by itself authorize excavation. Work may begin only after the one-call information exchange system confirms that every applicable owner-member or contract locator has marked its facilities, marked the applicable portion under an agreed schedule, or reported no facilities in the vicinity. If a response is missing, the excavator must follow the notification process rather than treating silence as a clearance.
Owner and Locator Responsibilities
An owner-member or contract locator must mark when the proposed work is within five horizontal feet of the facility or when nearby blasting could damage or disturb it. The location must be marked within 18 inches horizontally on either side of the facility using the current APWA color code. If owners share a color, the markings must identify the owner. The normal response is due within two business days after ticket transmission or before the selected start-work date. Large or contiguous projects may use documented or phased marking agreements.
The Mark Is Not the Exposed Facility
A surface mark represents the approximate horizontal location developed from available records, access points, locating methods, and field conditions. It does not verify the facility's exact position, depth, diameter, outside surface, material, or configuration. Maryland therefore places a separate duty on the excavator to expose the facility before mechanized equipment approaches it.
Membership and Covered Facilities
Owners of covered underground facilities must participate in a one-call system. The definition includes public utilities, telecommunications and cable companies, political subdivisions, municipal corporations, authorities, state units, and other persons that own or operate an underground facility and have the right to bury it. Maryland transportation agencies participate through a separate agreement; they are not exempt from membership. The statute contains no general exemption for railroads, gravity sanitary sewers, nonpressurized water systems, or facilities simply because they are difficult to detect.
Safe Excavation and Special Conditions
Safe Excavation Within 18 Inches
Before mechanized equipment is used within 18 inches of an underground-facility marking, the excavator must expose the facility to its outermost surfaces by hand or another nondestructive technique. After exposure, mechanized equipment may not excavate within 18 inches of the facility's outermost surface. Vacuum excavation is one nondestructive exposure method when it is properly selected and performed. The excavator must continue to exercise due care around both marked facilities and clear evidence of an unmarked facility.
Trenchless Installation and Cross-Bore Prevention
For horizontal directional drilling, boring, tunneling, pipe ramming, pipe jacking, moling, pipe bursting, and other trenchless methods, intersecting underground facilities must be exposed by nondestructive techniques to the planned excavation depth plus 18 inches. Those facilities must remain accounted for throughout the trenchless operation. Entry and exit pits alone do not satisfy the requirement when the planned path crosses other facilities.
Missing Facilities and Damaged Marks
When visible evidence indicates that an underground facility or structure has not been marked, the excavator must request a re-mark and follow the positive-response process before beginning or continuing work. The excavator is responsible for maintaining the marks. If marks are obliterated, destroyed, or removed, the excavator must request a re-mark and may not repaint, replace, or repair the facility owner's markings.
Emergency Excavation
An emergency is a sudden or unexpected occurrence involving a clear and imminent danger that demands immediate action to prevent or reduce loss of or injury to life, health, property, or an essential public service. The person performing emergency work must clearly identify the location and extent of work, take all reasonable precautions to protect underground facilities, and immediately notify the one-call system. The emergency procedure applies only while the emergency is being stopped or mitigated and until a standard ticket is initiated and valid. Misuse of an emergency ticket is subject to penalties.
Damage and Disturbance Reporting
The excavator must promptly report any discovered or caused damage, dislocation, or disturbance to the facility owner. Damage is not limited to a severed pipe or cable; it includes conditions requiring repair because the facility, protective coating, lateral support, cathodic protection, or housing has been weakened or partly or completely destroyed. If a flammable, toxic, or corrosive gas or liquid escapes, the excavator must immediately notify 911 in addition to reporting the event to the owner.
Important Exceptions and Distinctions
Dedicated storm drains. A storm drain is expressly excluded from the statutory definition of an underground facility used for the one-call marking requirements. A sanitary sewer and a combined storm and sanitary sewer are expressly covered. Separate provisions still require certain new storm-drain systems and building connections to be detectable or locatable.
Limited residential work. The subtitle does not apply when an owner or lessee of a private residence excavates no more than six inches deep, entirely on the residential property, and without machinery. All conditions must be satisfied.
Continued responsibility. Receiving an 811 ticket and markings does not excuse careless excavation or eliminate liability for damage or injury. The work must still be performed carefully and prudently.
Field Training Summary
Define the work area -> Notify 811 -> Wait for every response -> Review the marks and site evidence -> Preserve the marks -> Expose facilities before mechanized excavation enters the protected area -> Maintain 18 inches from the exposed facility -> Report every damage or disturbance.
Primary Legal References
Maryland Public Utilities Article Title 12 Subtitle 1 - Sections 12-101 through 12-135 cover definitions, exceptions, liability, emergency work, membership, tickets, marking, safe excavation, damage reporting, and enforcement.
Training note: Technical training summary, not legal advice. Verify the current statute and project-specific requirements for compliance decisions.