| Welcome to National Grid’s Tips of the Trade. National Grid is committed to your safety, and these tips are intended to help you work safely near our natural gas pipelines. Please review these tips with your coworkers at your tailgate or toolbox meetings before work begins. |
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| Protect and preserve your 811 locate marks |
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| You are responsible for maintaining locate marks for the duration of your excavation or demolition project. Learn why this is essential and what you should do if the marks on your job site become unclear. |
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| Locate marks help prevent excavation‑related damage |
| Locate marks – colored paint, flags or stakes placed by a utility locator – alert you to the presence of buried utility lines in your dig area. They indicate the direction in which each utility line runs and its approximate location. When markings fade, smear or disappear, the risk of striking a utility line increases, putting workers and property in danger. |
| New York and Massachusetts state law requires excavators to maintain all utility markings throughout the project. Do not remove flags or erase paint marks until the job is completed. |
| Monitor marks and act quickly |
| Rain, snow, traffic and foot movement can fade paint or displace flags and stakes. Inspect locate marks routinely and take immediate action if they appear damaged, missing or unclear: |
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Request a re‑mark from 811. |
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Stop work until the area is re‑marked – do not rely on photos and videos of locate marks to continue digging. These are useful for your job documentation but cannot substitute for the marks. |
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| The New York and Massachusetts 811 centers provide free re‑marking. Requests for re‑marking will be fulfilled within two full working days in New York and within 24 hours in Massachusetts. |
| Preserving locate marks protects more than your project. Utility strikes can cause fires, explosions, outages and environmental damage that affects entire neighborhoods. Keep marks intact to help protect essential services and community safety. |
Know how to notify 811 for your location |
| Dial 811 or make an online request at least 72 hours before digging in Massachusetts (excluding weekends and legal holidays) and at least two full working days in New York (excluding the date of your request, weekends and legal holidays). It’s the law! |
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