Sunday is Aug. 11, which is also known as 811 Day. It serves as an important reminder for Florida residents and excavators to call 811 at least two business days before they start digging.
Tampa Electric reminds Floridians that the underground network of utility wires, cables and pipelines is often closer to the surface than they might think. Striking one of these underground utility lines could cause the loss of electric, natural gas, water or communications and cable services, injury or death, and could potentially result in fines and repair costs.
Calling 811 alerts utilities to mark their underground equipment that could be damaged. All digging projects – from DIY tasks, such as landscaping or installing a mailbox, to larger projects requiring excavation equipment – require a call to 811.
A national survey recently showed that more than half of U.S. homeowners plan to complete an outdoor do-it-yourself project that involves digging in the next year – but only 60 percent of them plan to call 811 before they begin their projects. When homeowners forget to call 811 before digging, they run the risk of damaging their own service lines. When excavators don’t follow safe digging practices, the impact is much greater – hundreds of residents and businesses can lose utility service from just one hit line.
Tampa Electric has a team of locators who visit job sites and mark underground power lines around homes and businesses – but only if there’s a call to 811 to alert them. In 2023, they responded to about 121,000 requests, for a total of more than 1 million requests since the team’s inception in 2016. Also in that time, damage to TECO’s underground equipment has dropped by more than 90 percent.
While most digging projects are preplanned and easily allow time to call 811 two business days before starting, some digging work may be unexpected. After severe weather, homeowners are often faced with downed fences and uprooted trees. As part of their post-storm recovery plan, residents should plan to call 811 before removing trees and tree stumps or resetting fences. Don’t run the risk of losing essential services; have underground utilities marked.
One free, simple phone call to 811 or visit to Sunshine811.com makes it easy for Sunshine 811 to notify all appropriate utility companies of your intent to dig. Here are some tips to remember:
- Call at least two full business days before digging to give utility companies enough time to properly mark their lines. When you call 811, you will be asked for the location and description of your digging project.
- Sunshine 811 notifies affected utility companies. Those who have equipment near the dig location then send a professional locator to mark the approximate location of their underground equipment for free.
- Check the Sunshine 811 Positive Response link at Sunshine811.com, and, once all utilities have responded, dig carefully and leave 24 inches of space near any marks in your project area.
- Even if you are not digging, remember to leave any markers – paint or flags – in place. They are a sign of work that may be coming soon to your area by a utility or contractor.
Visit Sunshine811.com or TampaElectric.com for more information about safe digging.
Tampa Electric, one of Florida’s largest investor-owned electric utilities, serves more than 840,000 customers in West Central Florida. Tampa Electric is a subsidiary of Emera Inc., a geographically diverse energy and services company headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
