PA One Call

Once a notice is filed, the participating facility owners locate and mark their own lines in the work area using the standard colour code: red for electric, yellow for gas and oil, orange for communications, blue for potable water, green for sewer and drainage. The marks show approximate location within a tolerance zone rather than an exact centreline, so digging close to one is done by hand rather than by dropping an auger on the paint. The statute also sets a waiting window before ground is broken, and an expiry after which the marks no longer count. Both of those move with amendments, so we work to the requirement in force and schedule the dig while the paint is still current.

What the system does not cover is the part that catches people. It reaches the facility owners of public utilities; it does not reach privately owned lines on the customer side of the meter. Irrigation mains, landscape lighting runs, pool equipment feeds, a propane line from a yard tank, a buried conduit out to a barn, garage or pool house — nobody marks those, and on the larger properties across the Main Line and Brandywine horse country they are exactly what a post-hole auger finds. Anything the homeowner knows about gets flagged on the site walk, and a private locate is worth it where the layout is unknown.

Filing is part of every job here, before any hole is dug, and it is not treated as paperwork. A struck gas or communications line is dangerous, expensive and entirely avoidable, and a fence contractor who skips the notice to save a day on the schedule is making that trade with someone else's property. If you are digging your own post holes, file the notice yourself — the obligation attaches to the person excavating.