The act creates new definitions applicable to underground facilities and excavation and adds broadband to the definition of "underground facilities".

Under the act, an underground facility owner shall ensure that all new and active underground facilities installed on any real property after August 28, 2025, shall be installed with a detectable underground location device unless the facility is capable of being detected from above ground with an electronic locating device.

Currently, any person who owns or operates an underground facility shall become a participant in a notification center. Under the act, the Board of Directors governing the notification center shall be composed of no fewer than 4 full voting directors from other damage prevention stakeholders within the construction industry, two of whom shall be from a heavy civil, site grading, road or highway contractor and 2 of whom shall be from a utility or underground contractor. None of the directors appointed from the construction industry shall work for a contractor that owns or operates an underground facility.

The act also modifies certain provisions regarding notices of intent to excavate.

When the location of the planned excavation cannot be clearly identified, the excavator may designate the planned excavation route or area to be excavated by physical white lining as described in the act, or by electronic white lining when available through the notification center. Such information may be provided to the notification center prior to or with the notice of intent to excavate.

If a person responsible for the excavation finds that an owner or operator of the underground facility who is a participant in a notification center did not mark the discovery of the underground facility, the person responsible for the excavation shall notify the notification center.

In the event of any damage, dislocation, or disturbance to any underground facility or any protective devices required to be reported by the excavator, the person responsible for the excavation operations shall report the damage through the Damage Information Reporting Tool sponsored by the Common Ground Alliance and in accordance with best practices.

The act requires design requests be made to the notification center at least 5 working days before the date a person has requested receiving the information relating to the design requests from the underground facility owner.

The location of underground facilities provided by a facility owner or operator to any person engaging in scheduled excavating shall be accurate. If any underground facility becomes damaged by an excavator due to the furnishing of inaccurate information as to its location by the facility owner or operator, the excavator shall not be subject to any liability resulting from damage to the underground facility as a result of the excavating, provided that such person engaging in scheduled excavating complies with the safety and notice requirements described in the act and current law and there is no visible or obvious evidence to the excavator of the presence of a mis-marked underground facility.

The failure of a locator or other contractor engaged by the underground facility owner to mark the facility owner's facilities shall be a rebuttable presumption of negligence on the part of the locator or other contractor engaged by the facility owner.

This act is similar to SB 1315 (2024) and HB 2329 (2024).

JULIA SHEVELEVA