April is National Safe Digging Month

April is National Safe Digging Month, a great reminder to always contact 811 before you dig! No matter how small your next home digging project is, remember to keep yourself and your community safe by contacting 811 to have the approximate location of buried utilities marked with paint or flags before breaking ground. 

National Safe Digging Month promotes safety while protecting underground utilities and crucial services. Safe digging is necessary all year to ensure the safety of persons who work or live near subsurface facilities. It also protects crucial services that affect the day-to-day life of people. Safe digging prevents unnecessary costs. When it comes to excavating safely, health and safety must always come first. Improper digging results in underground assets being damaged and requiring repairs. National safe digging month creates avenues to prevent incurring indirect costs and lost business to local businesses.


Interesting Facts About Digging
     1. The most common cause of pipeline accidents is unauthorized digging.
     2. In the United States, there is over a football field's worth of subsurface utilities per person.
     3. According to the Common Ground Alliance, there are about 20 million miles of underground utilities in the United States.
     4. There are eight distinct flag colors representing underground utilities like electricity, water, and so on.
     5. An underground utility wire is broken every nine minutes due to inappropriate digging.


Learn more at 811beforeyoudig.com.

Safe Digging Colors