House Bill 1191 Summary

• Extends standard excavation notice requirement from 14 to 20 calendar days and establishes separate 30-calendar-day requirement for submerged excavations, with operators having 3 working days (7 working days for submerged) to locate and mark facilities.

• Adds definitions and requirements for submerged facilities and submerged excavations, including a 75-foot marine exclusion zone requiring written operator consent before excavation.

• Requires emergency excavation notices to include contact information for an on-site person available to discuss the excavation with utility operators.

• Creates new preconstruction meeting procedures for large project excavations (those requiring more than 20 calendar days for standard or 30 calendar days for submerged work), allowing excavators to request meetings with operators to establish written excavation agreements with customized timeframes.

• Establishes tolerance zones (18 inches plus half the facility diameter) requiring noninvasive excavation methods such as hand digging or vacuum excavation before mechanical equipment operates near marked underground facilities.