Contractors

Working as a Contractor

Whether you are completing residential, commercial, or infrastructure work, requesting the correct type of locate and reviewing all responses before excavation begins is an important part of planning your project.

Get The Dirt On All Digs

Contacting Ontario Dig Authority will help protect your project from unnecessary damages, injuries, and administrative penalties. We notify buried infrastructure owners that you are excavating. Once notified, all buried infrastructure owners notified on the locate request will locate the underground utilities, like, cables, pipes and wires they own or let you know their infrastructure is not at risk and are clear to dig. Requesting a locate is free and it’s the law.

Digging on the jobsite

Before work begins:

• Submit the appropriate locate request.
• Single Address Requests are completed within 5 business days.
• Advanced Requests (projects involving multiple addresses or larger work areas) are completed within 10 business days.
• Wait until all notified infrastructure owners have responded.
• Review the complete locate package with your crew and keep it available on site.
• Follow the written instructions provided by each buried infrastructure owners.
• If the scope or location of your work changes, submit a new locate request before continuing.

Following the locate process helps protect workers, underground infrastructure, and the communities where you work.

Complete Locate Package

A complete locate package is an essential document to be kept at an excavation site. It contains important safety information that will help protect your crew. It includes a confirmation page, the responses from the buried infrastructure owners notified, and any other relevant information (emergency contacts if buried cables/pipes are found and were not on the locates, specific safety protocols, company Best Practices). This documentation is critical when requesting utility locates in Ontario.

Sharing Locates

If multiple people or organizations are performing excavation as part of the same project, locate information may be shared, provided all excavation activities fall within the same approved digging parameters.

The easiest way to share locates is to include the additional excavator’s contact information when the locate request is submitted.

If that isn’t possible, locate information may still be shared with another contractor by submitting a share a locate request, provided the work being performed matches the scope and limits of the original locate request.

Sharing locates appropriately can help reduce duplicate locate requests and improve efficiency while ensuring all excavators have the information they need to dig safely.

Alternate Locate Agreements, System Filters and Suppressions

In some cases, pre-arranged processes may be available to help streamline locate requests for specific types of low-risk excavation work.

These may include Alternate Locate Agreements, System Filters, or Suppressions. These processes are established in advance between the excavator, Underground Infrastructure Owner, and Ontario Dig Authority, and may help reduce unnecessary field locates or duplicate notifications where the work has been reviewed and determined to be low risk.

These arrangements must be in place before excavation begins and only apply to approved work activities or project conditions.

For more information, contact IAS@OntarioDigAuthority.ca.

Design & Planning Requests

A Design & Planning Request provides available records of buried infrastructure to support project planning, design, estimating, and coordination before construction begins.

Please note:

• Design & Planning Requests are for planning purposes only and do not provide valid locate paperwork or authorize excavation.
• Before any excavation begins, you must submit a Locate Request.
• Participation by Infrastructure Owners is voluntary and not required under the Act. Infrastructure Owners that do not participate may need to be contacted directly for planning information.