Before You Dig in Kirksville: Utility-Locate Basics

Before digging in Kirksville, start with 811.

Missouri law requires advance notice before excavation so underground facility owners have a chance to mark or otherwise respond about their lines.

Contact Missouri 811

Current Missouri guidance allows a locate request through:

• 811;
• 1-800-DIG-RITE;
• Missouri 811's online request system.

The service is free for ordinary locate requests.

Kirksville Public Works also points residents to Dig Rite for utility locating.

Give enough lead time

Current Missouri public guidance says routine requests should be placed at least three working days before digging.

The legal timing is more nuanced than simply waiting a fixed number of hours.

Facility owners must respond within the statutory process, and excavation should not begin before the scheduled start unless the required responses are complete.

For a real project, use the current ticket status rather than an old rule of thumb.

What happens after the request?

Missouri One Call notifies participating facility owners.

Those operators can then:

• mark approximate facility locations;
• report that no affected facilities are present;
• provide another required response.

Do not begin work merely because one utility has marked.

Check the full positive-response/status information for the ticket.

Public locates do not necessarily cover private lines

The public locating system generally identifies facilities owned or operated by participating utilities.

It may not locate privately installed lines such as some:

• private electric runs;
• irrigation;
• private gas lines;
• yard lighting;
• customer-owned communications wiring.

If the property has private underground infrastructure, separate private locating may be needed.

Marks are approximate

Paint and flags indicate the approximate location of buried facilities.

They are not permission to excavate carelessly directly against the mark.

Follow the current Missouri excavation requirements for working near marked facilities.

Do not use a City map as a substitute

Kirksville publishes useful utility and infrastructure maps.

Those maps are for planning and reference.

They are not a replacement for an 811 locate before excavation.

For those resources, see How to Find Kirksville Property, Street, Utility and Zoning Maps.

Simple sequence

1. define the excavation area;
2. contact Missouri 811;
3. wait through the required process;
4. confirm all responses;
5. identify any private lines;
6. preserve the marks;
7. dig according to current rules.

The phone call is easy.

Repairing a buried utility because nobody made it is not.