Is Your Property Ready for Construction? Importance of Utility Mapping

Utility mapping is what you do before design, not after the first strike. On a property with any history, the drawings on file describe a system that has been cut, abandoned, rerouted and added to for decades.

A locate answers one question on one day. A map is a record you can design from, hand to a contractor, and keep.

What a mapping job covers

• The public services into the property, verified against the 811 marks rather than assumed from them.

• Private distribution past the meter: water, sewer and septic, gas, primary and secondary electric, communications.

• Abandoned line, which is still in the way even though nobody bills for it.

• Depth where the method allows, and the limits stated plainly where it does not.

Verifying the public marks is part of the work

811 operators mark to their own records and their own standard of care. Marks get missed, and lines get marked in the wrong place. We check the public marks against what we detect and mark public line that was missed, which is a different service from simply locating private utilities.

If a public mark looks wrong before you dig, contact the operator that owns it. Their marking concerns numbers are listed by county for Oregon and Washington.

RTK data collection

Paint and flags last until the next rain or the next scraper pass. RTK collection captures the located lines as survey-grade coordinates, so the information survives the weather, goes into the site drawings, and is there the next time somebody digs. It is an optional add-on to any locate.

When mapping pays for itself

Before buying or subdividing. Before a building addition where the footprint crosses existing service. Before a solar array, EV charger run, or new shop where trenching is unavoidable. Before any project where a strike would stop other trades, which on a commercial site in Portland, Seattle, Spokane or Boise is most of them.

For what the site visit itself involves, see what happens during a private utility locate.

Get the private lines located first

Advanced Underground Utility Locating has been locating private utilities since 2002. We locate the lines 811 will not mark, verify the public marks that were made, and mark public lines that were missed. RTK data collection is available as an option if you want the locate captured as survey-grade points rather than paint.

Spokane, Coeur d'Alene and the Idaho panhandle: 509-710-2621. Seattle, Tacoma and Portland: 509-954-8623. Bend, Medford and northern California: 541-678-0629. Eugene and Roseburg: 541-780-4149. Coos Bay and the Oregon Coast: 541-315-6728. Emergency service is available 24 hours.