O.C.G.A. § 25-9-6 (2019)
Prerequisites to blasting or excavating; marking of sites
(a) No person shall commence, perform, or engage in blasting or in excavating with mechanized excavating equipment on any tract or parcel of land in any county in this state unless and until the person planning the blasting or excavating has submitted a locate request to the UPC that provides appropriate notice. Any person performing excavation is responsible for being aware of all information timely entered into the PRIS prior to the commencement of excavation. If, prior to the expiration of the appropriate notice period, all identified facility owners or operators have responded to the locate request, and if all such facility owners or operators have indicated that their facilities either are not in conflict or have been marked, then the person planning to perform blasting or excavating shall be authorized to commence work, subject to the other requirements of this Code section, without waiting until the end of the notice period. No appropriate notice shall be required for excavating where minimally intrusive excavation methods are used exclusively. Any locate request received by the UPC after business hours shall be deemed to have been received by the UPC the next business day. Such locate request shall: (1) Describe the tract or parcel of land upon which the blasting or excavating is to take place with sufficient particularity, as defined by policies developed and promulgated by the UPC, to enable the facility owner or operator to ascertain the precise tract or parcel of land involved; (2) State the name, address, and telephone number of the person that will engage in the blasting or excavating; (3) Describe the type of blasting or excavating to be engaged in by the person; (4) Specify an effective date for the requested blasting or excavating and the duration of time in which such blasting or excavating is expected to take place; and
(5) Provide appropriate notice. (b) In the event the location upon which the blasting or excavating is to take place cannot be described with sufficient particularity to enable the facility owner or operator to ascertain the precise tract or parcel involved, the person proposing the blasting or excavating shall mark the route or boundary of the site of the proposed blasting or excavating by means of white lining, as practical, or schedule an on-site meeting with the locator or facility owner or operator and inform the UPC, within a reasonable time, of the results of such meeting. The person marking a site using white lining shall comply with the rules and regulations of the Department of Transportation as to the use of such markings so as not to obstruct signs, pavement markings, pavement, or other safety devices. (c) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, no blasting or excavating undertaken pursuant to a locate request shall take place more than 30 calendar days after the effective date. In the event that the blasting or excavating that is the subject of a locate request submitted pursuant to subsection (a) of this Code section will not be completed within 30 calendar days following the effective date of such locate request, an additional locate request with appropriate notice must be submitted to the UPC. Additional appropriate notices for an existing locate request shall not expand the tract or parcel of land upon which the blasting or excavation is to take place. (d) For emergencies, no blasting or excavating shall take place after 7:00 A.M. on the third business day after the locate request is submitted to the UPC. (e) Except for those persons submitting design locate requests, no person, including any facility owner or operator, shall request marking of a site through the UPC unless excavating is scheduled to commence. In addition, no person shall make repeated requests for re-marking, unless the repeated request is required for excavating to continue or due to circumstances not reasonably within the control of such person. Any person that willfully fails to comply with this subsection shall be liable to the facility owner or operator for $100.00 or for actual costs, whichever is greater, for each repeated request for re-marking. (f) If, subsequent to submitting a locate request to the UPC required by subsection (a) of this Code section, a person planning excavating determines that such work will require blasting, then such person shall promptly so notify the UPC and shall refrain from any blasting until the facility owner or operator responds within 48 hours, excluding hours during days other than business days, following receipt by the UPC of such notification. (g) When a locate request is made in accordance with subsection (a) of this Code section, excavators other than the person planning the
blasting or excavating may conduct such activity, provided that the person planning the blasting or excavating shall remain responsible for ensuring that any stakes or other markings placed in accordance with this chapter remain in place and reasonably visible until such blasting or excavating is completed; and provided, further, that such blasting or excavating is: (1) Performed on the tract or parcel of land identified in the locate request; (2) Performed by a person authorized by and having a contractual relationship with the person planning the blasting or excavating; (3) The type of blasting or excavating described in the locate request; and (4) Carried out in accordance with all other requirements of this chapter. (h) Facility owners or operators may bill an excavator for their costs related to any requests for re-marking other than for re-marks with no more than five individual addresses on a single locate request. Such costs shall be documented actual costs and shall not exceed $100.00 per re-mark request.
History
Ga. L. 1969, p. 50, § 5; Ga. L. 1975, p. 417, § 3; Code 1981, § 25-9-5 [repealed]; Code 1981, § 25-9-6, as redesignated by Ga. L. 1986, p. 1069, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 805, § 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 780, § 1; Ga. L. 2005, p. 1142, § 5/SB 274; Ga. L. 2014, p. 652, § 3/SB 117; Ga. L. 2015, p. 5, § 25/HB 90; Ga. L. 2016, p. 239, § 1/SB 191; Ga. L. 2022, p. 325, § 1/HB 1372. The 2022 amendment, effective September 1, 2022, rewrote subsection (a); in subsection (b), substituted “lining, as” for “paint, white stakes, or white flags if” in the first sentence and “using” for “with” in the second sentence; rewrote subsections (c) and (d); in subsection (e), substituted “any facility owner or operator” for “facility owners or operators” in the first sen-
tence and “that” for “who” in the third sentence; in subsection (f), substituted “submitting a locate request” for “giving the notice”, substituted “48 hours” for “24 hours”, and substituted “notification” for “notice” at the end; and substituted “for their costs related to” for “their costs for” in the first sentence of subsection (h).
Annotations
Editor’s notes. This Code section formerly provided for a gas company’s duties upon being notified of proposed blasting or excavating. Ga. L. 1986, p. 1069, § 1 in effect renumbered the former Code section as Code Section Ga. L. 1986, p. 1069, § 1 in effect renumbered former Code Section 25-9-5 as this Code section.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Violations. - When an asphalt company admitted that the company had been “scraping” a site where a telephone cable was severed, and telephone company employees testified it appeared that there had been digging at the site where the
cable was severed, the evidence was sufficient to support the Georgia Public Service Commission’s conclusion that the company violated the Georgia Utility Facility Protection Act (now the Georgia Underground Facility Protection Act),
O.C.G.A. § 25-9-1 et seq., by not contacting the utilities protection center to locate buried utilities before the company began
work. Douglas Asphalt Co. v. Ga. PSC, 263 Ga. App. 711, 589 S.E.2d 292, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 1295 (2003).
RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. 31A Am. Jur. 2d, Explosions and Explosives, § 63 et seq. C.J.S. 35 C.J.S., Explosives, § 41 et seq. ALR. Liability for property damage by concussion from blasting, 20 A.L.R.2d 1372. Liability of excavator for injury or damage resulting from explosion or fire caused
by his damaging of gas mains and pipes, 53 A.L.R.2d 1083. Liability of gas company for damage resulting from failure to inspect or supervise work of contractors digging near gas pipes, 71 A.L.R.3d 1174. Liability of one excavating in highway for injury to public utility cables, conduits, or the like, 73 A.L.R.3d 987.