Safety & Compliance

Damage Prevention Starts with the Ticket

Florida law requires notice to Sunshine 811 before excavation, and the notice window is set by statute rather than by convenience. Tickets are called with accurate limits and a real description of the work, because a vague ticket produces vague marks.

Before a rig starts, the crew reviews positive response from every member utility on the ticket. A missing or unclear response is resolved before excavation, not treated as permission to proceed. Tickets are refreshed before they expire on longer runs.

Marks are compared against the design, against visible surface evidence such as pedestals, valves, meters, and risers, and against available facility records. Where those disagree, the conflict is resolved in the field before the head goes in the ground.

Tolerance Zone and Utility Exposure

Florida establishes a tolerance zone on either side of a marked facility where mechanical excavation is not permitted. Inside that zone we use hand digging and vacuum excavation to expose the facility and confirm its actual depth and alignment.

For directional drilling, exposure is not optional at crossings. Potholing at each crossed utility gives the operator a verified depth to steer against rather than an assumed one, and the exposure is recorded so the as-built shows how clearance was confirmed.

Bore path planning takes those exposures into account before the bore begins. Depth, pitch, and separation are planned to clear existing facilities with margin, and the tracking operator monitors position continuously through the crossing.

• Ticket called and positive response confirmed before excavation
• Marks verified against design, surface evidence, and available records
• Hand and vacuum excavation inside the tolerance zone
• Verified depth at every crossed facility before boring through it
• Stop work and re-verify when field conditions do not match the marks

Daily Safety Briefings and Stop Work Authority

Every shift begins with a documented briefing covering the day scope, the utilities in the work area, traffic conditions, weather, equipment assignments, and the specific hazards of that location. It is a short meeting held at the site, not a form signed in the truck.

Conditions change during the day, so the briefing is repeated when the work moves, when the crew composition changes, or when something unexpected appears. Every crew member has stop work authority, and using it is expected rather than tolerated.

Near misses and utility contacts are reported the same day. A near miss that is not reported is a strike waiting for the next crew.

Maintenance of Traffic

Most of this work happens in a right of way. Temporary traffic control is set to the standard the permitting agency requires, following the applicable state and national traffic control standards for the road classification, posted speed, and duration of the work.

Setups are installed before work begins and inspected through the shift. Lane closures, shoulder work, sidewalk closures, and pedestrian routing are handled as scoped work with time in the schedule, because an inadequate setup shuts a job down as fast as an equipment failure.

Flagging positions are staffed according to the requirements of the permitting agency and the approved traffic control plan for the location.

Excavation Safety and the Competent Person

Excavation work follows federal excavation safety requirements and Florida trench safety requirements. Entry pits, exit pits, handhole and vault excavations, and open cut work are evaluated for soil classification, water, spoil placement, and access before anyone enters.

A competent person is the individual on site with the knowledge to identify hazardous conditions and the authority to correct them immediately, including ordering personnel out of an excavation. That role is assigned on every excavation, and the person holding it inspects the excavation daily and after any condition that could change stability.

Florida water table and sandy soils change trench behavior quickly, particularly after rain. Protective systems are selected for the conditions on the day, not for the conditions on the plan sheet.

Personal Protective Equipment

PPE requirements are consistent across our work: head protection, high visibility apparel appropriate to the roadway environment, eye protection, appropriate gloves for the task, protective footwear, and hearing protection around drilling and vacuum equipment.

Fall protection is used in aerial lifts as a standing rule. Additional task specific protection is added for splicing, fluid handling, confined space entry where applicable, and any work the site conditions require.

Utility Strike Prevention as a System

No single control prevents strikes. What prevents them is the combination: an accurate ticket, verified positive response, physical exposure inside the tolerance zone, a planned bore path, continuous tracking, an operator who stops when the readings do not make sense, and a crew that is allowed to say so.

That system is also what protects your schedule and your relationship with the jurisdiction, which is why we treat it as production work rather than overhead.

Documentation and Prequalification

Safety program documentation, written policies, training records, and loss history are provided for owner and general contractor prequalification on request. Experience modification rate and current safety statistics are provided in prequalification packages on request, taken directly from the source records.

What Do the Locate Mark Colors Mean?

Locate marks follow the APWA uniform color code, so every crew reads the same paint the same way. Each color identifies a type of facility, and the marks show its approximate horizontal position, not its depth. Our crews check that every color expected on the ticket is present before excavation starts.

• Red: electric power lines, cables, conduit, and lighting cables
• Yellow: gas, oil, steam, petroleum, or other gaseous materials
• Orange: communication, alarm or signal lines, cables, or conduit
• Blue: potable water
• Purple: reclaimed water, irrigation, and slurry lines
• Green: sewers and drain lines
• White: proposed excavation limits marked by the excavator
• Pink: temporary survey markings

Heat, Lightning, and Florida Weather

Florida weather is a safety hazard in its own right. Summer heat and humidity put field crews at risk of heat illness, especially in full PPE beside hot pavement. Crews work with water, shade, and rest breaks built into the day, and heavier tasks are moved earlier in the shift when the forecast calls for extreme heat.

Lightning is the other constant. Afternoon thunderstorms build quickly across Central Florida, and a crew in an aerial lift or beside a steel drill string is exposed. Aerial work and drilling stop when lightning is nearby, and work resumes only after the storm has clearly passed, commonly following the guidance to wait 30 minutes after the last thunder.

Heavy rain also changes ground conditions. Excavations are re-inspected after rain, outrigger footing is rechecked, and traffic control devices are reset before work continues.