I want to shine a light on an area that does not receive a lot of attention, resulting in damages. Those are the newly installed underground utility lines. There is always a gap between the time they are built and installed until the time they are marked through the One-Call System. This gap has resulted in damages to these brand-new facilities because they were not marked after the a locate request submission. This gap is often caused by the official acceptance of those facilities by the final owner. If an existing underground facility owner commissions the new underground facility lines—whether it is a utility company, municipality, or water and sewer district—and involves only one type of facility, then the gap is smaller and does not last as long. There may even be cooperation between the design/engineering firm, contractor, and the final utility owner, indicating that they will provide locate ticket information so that someone, usually the contractor, can have someone mark out those new underground lines.
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