If you are planning a small project on your property and need to disturb the ground, there are some important factors to consider before you get started. Whether you are landscaping, building a new fence or deck, or simply planting a garden, disturbing the ground on your property can cause damage to a buried utility. Some utilities are buried only centimeters below the surface.

The results of a contact with a buried utility can be loss of an essential service for you or your neighbours, costly repairs, and most importantly serious injury or death.

Step 1: 

Before starting your project, have the utility lines on your property identified and marked out. This is accomplished by submitting a utility locate request to Utility Safety Partners (USP). On the USP website, utilize the ClickBeforeYouDig link, or call 1-800-242-3447 Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Place your request at least 3 business days before you want to start your project to allow Facility Locate Technicians enough time to mark out the utilities in your dig zone. Depending on the time of year, the time to complete your request may take longer.

Step 2: 

After you have submitted your request, each utility owner will identify and mark out their utilities on your property and provide you with documentation explaining the markings. They will also let you know if they do not have any utilities in the project area. 

The utility owner may contact you to schedule a time to meet you at the project location. For example, if pets are loose or the project location is behind a locked gate.

Step 3:

Identify any Customer owned utility lines in the area such as the private side of the water, sanitary and storm service, sprinkler systems, or any other lines connecting buildings on your property. Since the utility companies and USP do not know the location of these lines, it is important to contact a private locator to identify these extra lines in your project area. Refer to the Locate-a-Locator list to view some of the facility location service providers in your area.

Step 4:

NOTE: Locate markings identify the approximate location of buried utilities and do not identify the depth of the line. If you’re digging within one meter on either side of the markings, carefully expose the line with hand tools to determine its exact location and depth. If you have questions about digging close to a utility, contact the utility owner.

Find additional resources and information in the USP FAQ.

If you have received a notification that we are coming into the area to complete water and wastewater work, please review the information on the notice, and check our Construction & Maintenance website here for further information on our construction and surface repair process. If you have further questions or concerns, please call Environmental Services at 403-342-8750 or email us at EnvironmentalServices@reddeer.ca.

When a Facility Locate Technician arrives on your property, they will locate and mark the buried utilities relative to the proposed excavation project with paint, stakes, or flags. Those markings will be in accordance with the standard universal color codes utilized for marking utilities and should be in sufficient quantity, and close enough together, to clearly identify the horizontal alignment of the buried facilities in the area. These alignment markings let the ground disturber know where to take extra caution while completing the excavation work. Please do not pull out these flags or disturb the markings before the excavation commences.

When Facility Locate Technician(s) arrive on your property, they will locate and mark the buried utilities relative to your proposed excavation project with paint, stakes, or flags. Those markings will be in accordance with the universal colour code and should be in sufficient quantity, and close enough together, to clearly identify the horizontal alignment of the buried facilities.

Utility Locate Color Codes: Flags or paint in the following colors denote designated facilities.

Red: Electric power lines, cables, conduit and lighting cables.

Yellow: Gas, oil, steam, petroleum or gaseous materials.

Orange: Communication lines, cable TV, alarm or signal lines, cables or conduit.

Blue: Potable water lines.

Green: Sanitary and storm drain sewer lines.

Purple: Reclaimed water, irrigation and slurry lines.

Pink: Temporary survey markings.

White: Proposed excavation area.

*Please note, the City uses pink paint to mark out our water and wastewater excavation areas. These pink paint marks will be outside the actual disturbance area. It is common practice to identify and mark buried facilities adjacent to the work area to indicate alignments outside the excavation.