Page 16 - May-June2022 Vol 40 No 1

FOCUS ON: TENNESSEE 811 By Craig Ingram

(Almost) 40 Years of ‘Call Before You Dig’

Whether it’s because of excavation Deeds for any county they were digging Tennessee One-Call System was
work your department performs, or in to obtain a list of utility operators originally a vendor-run service operated
underground facilities that you own with underground lines in that county. by a company based in Pennsylvania.
and maintain, chances are good you’re The excavator was then required to Around 1995, the board of Tennessee
familiar with Tennessee 811, the give the county a day to produce the One-Call System decided they wanted to
statewide “Call Before You Dig” service. list, and then began the process of bring the operation in-house to be self-
You may even remember the days of contacting all listed utilities – one by run. A small office space was rented in
Tennessee One-Call before 811 rolled one – to let them know when and where Nashville and a handful of staff and call
out across the country. Read on for a they would be digging. Once a utility center agents began taking calls.
better understanding of the origin of was notified, with at least three days’ Tennessee One-Call Becomes
811 in Tennessee and how the process notice, they were required to provide Tennessee 811
has grown and improved over time. location information no less than two Jumping forward to 2005, Tennessee
The Underground Utility Damage working days before the scheduled start One-Call had grown significantly as
Prevention Act date of the work. additional utilities became members
On September 1, 1978, chapter Streamlining the Notification Process of the service and as knowledge of
692 of the Public Acts of 1978 went That process wasn’t adopted very the service spread through both the
into effect. This new law was titled widely, as you might imagine, but the professional excavator community
the “Underground Utility Damage good news is that the law allowed for and homeowners across the state.
Prevention Act”. It required anyone utilities to come together and develop a That year, the FCC designated 811 as
excavating in Tennessee to ascertain the streamlined notification process. After the nationwide “Call Before You Dig”
location of all underground utilities in “one-call systems” were formed in other number.
their work area before the digging work states for just this purpose, a group of In 2007, Tennessee One-Call System
began. The process established back Tennessee utilities came together to began doing business as Tennessee
then was a bit cumbersome – it required launch a one-call system for our state. 811. In 2015, membership became
excavators to contact the Register of Established in 1983, the nonprofit mandatory for all utility operators

16 TPW May/June 2022