With the construction projects around town, have you ever wondered what those multiple colors on the pavement and sidewalks might be? The Arizona 811 program helps to decorate our streets and sidewalks with colored paint to help avoid any damage to underground utilities. Established in 1974 as a non-profit organization, Arizona 811 helps contractors and homeowners identify what might be lying below the surface.
The 1973 law states that Arizona 811 must be contacted before “…any operation in which earth, rock or other material in the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means or use of any tools, equipment or explosives, and includes without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, auguring, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, and driving.” So, what does this mean for Marana Water and our customers? Well, when anyone, including homeowners, is going to do some work requiring digging, a call to Arizona 811 should be made. The professionals there will help identify what utility company or companies should be called depending on the area of the project. They will help to locate pipes, cables, underground lines to help dig safely.
According to their website, Arizona 811 processes 522,000 tickets for location each year throughout the state, all free of charge. These tickets are divided into the various utilities, which each have their own color identifying what is below the ground. These colors are uniform across the country. The image above shows the specific colors associated with Arizona 811. Here at Marana Water we mark water (blue) and sanitary sewer (green) systems. In January, Marana Water marked 284 water lines and eight sewer lines that were received from the Arizona 811 system.
By reaching out to Arizona 811 the integrity of water, telephone, electric, gas, and other utility lines remains intact and injury to anyone onsite can be avoided. Marana Water both provides marking for our water and sewer lines, but also will contact them when we are working on our own construction projects.
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