Before you dig.
Every state makes you notify a one-call centre before you break ground, and every state counts the waiting period differently. Business days and working days and plain hours are not the same thing, and the difference is usually a weekend — which is the difference between having a valid ticket on Monday morning and not.
Underground and drop-bury listings carry their states' requirements on the listing itself, next to the start date, so you can see whether the schedule is real before you call anybody.
2 working days notice before you break ground
At least two but not more than fifteen working days out — unless the site is remote or unstaffed, which is its own rule. See below.
- Statute
- AS 42.30.400, 42.30.410
The number that will actually catch a crew out: for a locate in a remote, unstaffed or inaccessible location, notice is at least TEN and not more than twenty working days. That is two weeks of lead time on exactly the work most likely to be scheduled tight, and it is the rule for a great deal of Alaska. No tolerance width is shown, for the same reason as Wyoming — Alaska's inch figures are marking accuracy, not a hand-dig zone: field marks must land within twenty-four horizontal inches of a facility buried ten feet or less, thirty inches if it is deeper. No ticket life is stated in the statute at all.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two to ten working days, day of notification excluded. Clock starts at the beginning of the next working day.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 20 working days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- Ala. Code Title 37 ch. 15, §§37-15-2, 37-15-4
18 inches from the outside edge of the facility.
2 working days notice before you break ground
At least two but not more than ten full working days. A working day starts at 7 a.m., so a ticket filed at 8 a.m. Monday has already missed Monday's start.
- Ticket good for
- 20 working days from the day you call
- Statute
- A.C.A. §§14-271-110, 14-271-112
Arkansas sets no tolerance width, and it does not need one: §14-271-110(a)(5) says you uncover a facility 'using a method approved by the operator' and that 'mechanized equipment shall not be used without the express approval of the operator'. That is stricter than any inch figure — within the approximate location of a marked line, the machine stays off unless the operator says otherwise. The same subsection cuts the other way too: you may start BEFORE the two days are up if the positive response system shows every operator has already responded. Renotify if the work runs past twenty working days or the marks stop being visible.
There is no single number to print for this one.
Arizona does not run on a waiting period. You may not break ground until marking is complete or you are told marking is unnecessary — however long that takes. The operator has two working days to get it done; that is their deadline, not your countdown.
- Ticket good for
- 15 working days from when marking is finished
- Statute
- A.R.S. §40-360.22
The two working days crews quote for Arizona is the operator's marking deadline under subsection B, not a period you can wait out and then dig. Note also that ticket life runs from the date of MARKING, not from the date you called — so a slow locate does not eat your fifteen days, it postpones the start of them. Large projects have their own rule: notify as soon as possible but not less than fifteen business days or twenty-one calendar days before the proposed start. No tolerance width is shown; the statute sets none. Subsection E does require you to keep 'sufficient clearance' between a bore path and a marked facility without ever saying how much.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two working days, Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The day you notify does not count. Max 14 calendar days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 28 calendar days from when the ticket goes out to the utilities
- Statute
- Cal. Gov. Code §§4216, 4216.2, 4216.4
24 inches each side of the field marking.
Renew by the end of day 28 or start again. Which centre you call depends on where the job is.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two business days, day of actual notice excluded. Clock starts the day after. No maximum found.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 30 calendar days from the end of the notice period
- Statute
- CRS 9-1.5-103
2 business days notice before you break ground
At least two full days excluding weekends and holidays, and no more than thirty days before you start.
- Ticket good for
- 30 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- Regs. Conn. State Agencies §16-345-4
No tolerance width is shown: the figure crews quote could not be confirmed on a source that would load, and a guessed hand-dig zone is worse than none.
There is no single number to print for this one.
Contested. D.C. Code §34-2704 says 'at least 96 hours, but no more than 10 days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays)' and it is not resolvable from the section whether that exclusion reaches back to the 96-hour floor.
- Statute
- D.C. Code §§34-2701 et seq., notice §34-2704
No number is shown because the swing is two full days on a Friday ticket: 96 clock hours ripens Tuesday morning, 96 hours excluding weekends ripens Thursday morning. Call Miss Utility and ask. Ticket life is 15 days excluding weekends and holidays, but the anchor is not stated in the section, so that is not shown either. No tolerance width is published.
3 business days notice before you break ground
Three to twelve business days ahead.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 12 business days from when the ticket goes out to the utilities
- Statute
- 26 Del. C. ch. 8 subch. I, §§802, 806
24 inches from the outer extremities of the line.
The ticket dies on the thirteenth business day after it went out to the member utilities — not after your start date.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two full business days, clock starting the day after. Ten for underwater work. No maximum.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 30 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- Fla. Stat. ch. 556, §§556.102, 556.105
24 inches from the outer edge of the facility's exterior surface.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two to eight business days. The clock starts at 7:00 a.m. on the first business day after Georgia 811 receives it.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Statute
- O.C.G.A. Title 25 ch. 9, §§25-9-3, 25-9-6
The facility's width plus 18 inches each side of its outside edge.
Ticket life is 30 calendar days from an 'effective date' the statute does not pin down, so no date is shown.
5 working days notice before you break ground
Five working days, and not more than twenty-eight calendar days ahead — the longest ordinary wait in the country. A working day runs 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., so an evening filing starts counting the next morning.
- Ticket good for
- 28 calendar days from when the ticket goes out to the utilities
- Statute
- HRS §§269E-7, 269E-12
Price the five working days into any Hawaii start date — it is more than double the mainland norm and it is not waivable outside an emergency. Your inquiry identification number runs twenty-eight calendar days from issue and you must hold a valid one for the whole dig, so a long job gets revalidated before it lapses, not after. No tolerance width is shown because Hawaii does not set one by distance: §269E-12 bans power-driven equipment within the approximate location of a line until you have hand-dug down to the full depth of the excavation. Pavement removal is the exception, and the operator can agree otherwise in writing.
48 hours notice before you break ground
Forty-eight consecutive hours beginning at 6:00 a.m. the next business day after Iowa One Call receives your notice, excluding weekends and legal holidays.
- Statute
- Iowa Code §480.1(6) (2026 Code; amended 2024 Acts ch. 1120 §1)
The clearest-drafted notice definition of any state here — it names the hour the clock starts. §480.1 sets no tolerance width, so none is shown.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two to ten business days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Statute
- Idaho Code Title 55 ch. 22, §§55-2202, 55-2205, 55-2207
Ticket life is contested — the Legislature says four weeks, the Damage Prevention Board says three. Plan on 21 days. Five northern counties use a different centre.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two to ten days — and the Act defines a day as excluding weekends, JULIE holidays, and the day you actually gave notice. Two days means two working days after today.
- Statute
- 220 ILCS 50/4(d), with 'day' defined at 220 ILCS 50/2
The figure people quote for Illinois is often 48 hours with a 14-day maximum. That is the pre-2025 text, and in the permissive direction — it would have you digging early. It is also easy to read 'not less than 2 days' as two calendar days, which is wrong by a whole weekend: the definitions section at 220 ILCS 50/2 excludes Saturdays, Sundays, JULIE holidays and the day of notice. Chicago runs its own centre.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two full working days. You may start at 7 a.m. on the next working day after those two have elapsed. Max ten calendar days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 20 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- IC 8-1-26, §§8-1-26-11.4, 8-1-26-16 (amended effective 2025-01-01)
24 inches added to the facility's width — a full radius, including below it.
The ticket dies at 11:59 p.m. on day 20.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two full working days. Max 20 calendar days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 20 calendar days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- K.S.A. §§66-1802 (tolerance), 66-1804 (notice and ticket life)
24 inches from the facility's outside dimensions. Larger water mains may elect up to 60 inches.
The notice period and the tolerance zone live in different sections of the statute — §66-1804 sets the wait, §66-1802 defines the zone. Reading only the first gets you a valid ticket and a wrong hand-dig width.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two to ten working days. A working day runs 12:01 a.m. to midnight, excludes weekends and state or federal holidays, and excludes the day you made the locate request.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side, at least 48" total
- Statute
- KRS 367.4911 (notice), 367.4903(12) and (25) (definitions) — effective 2024-07-15
A strip at least four feet wide, and no wider than the facility plus two feet each side. On a drop cable the four-foot floor is the one that binds, not the 24 inches.
Kentucky defines two different things and they get confused constantly: 'approximate location' at §367.4903(11) is the facility width plus 24 inches each side, while the 'tolerance zone' at (25) has a four-foot floor. The zone you hand-dig is the second one.
48 hours notice before you break ground
48 to 120 hours excluding weekends and holidays. The clock starts at 7:00 a.m. the next working day.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 20 calendar days from the mark-by time
- Break ground within
- 120 hours from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- La. R.S. 40:1749.11 et seq., §§40:1749.13, .14
18 inches from the marks.
Two separate clocks: the marks last 20 calendar days including weekends, but you must break ground within 120 hours or the ticket is dead regardless.
72 hours notice before you break ground
72 hours excluding weekends and legal holidays, and no more than 30 days ahead. Premark the scope in white paint, stakes or flags before you call.
- Statute
- M.G.L. c. 82 §§40, 40A–40E
The 500-foot rule gets repeated backwards. §40 says premarking 'shall not be required of any continuous excavation that is over 500 feet in length' — it does not oblige you to chop a long route into 500-foot tickets, which would pad weeks of phantom lead time into a start date. Penalties run $1,000 for a first offence and $5,000 to $10,000 for a repeat within twelve months. No tolerance width is shown: none was confirmed.
3 business days notice before you break ground
Three to twelve business days, counted from when the ticket is started.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 12 business days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- Md. Code, Public Utilities §§12-124, 12-125, 12-127
18 inches from the mark before the line is exposed, and from the facility surface once it is.
Maryland and Delaware both say twelve business days and count them from different events. Read the anchor, not the number.
3 business days notice before you break ground
At least three business days, and not more than thirty calendar days ahead.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side, at least 36" total
- Break ground within
- 30 calendar days from the day you call
- Statute
- 23 M.R.S. §3360-A
Marks run a strip up to three feet wide over the line, eighteen inches either side of it.
Two deadlines, not one: you must BREAK GROUND within thirty days of notifying, and if the job is not finished within sixty days you notify again. The often-quoted Maine shortcut — that you can start as soon as the marks are in rather than waiting the full three days — is real but narrow. It sits in subsection 10-A and reaches only facilities on private property serving single-family homes whose owners are not system members. On ordinary work for member operators, wait the three business days.
72 hours notice before you break ground
72 hours, and every hour of a non-business day is excluded from the count — so a Friday afternoon ticket does not ripen until Wednesday. Max 14 calendar days.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side, at least 36" total
- Statute
- MCL 460.725 (MISS DIG Act, Act 174 of 2013)
A strip at least 36 inches wide, no wider than the marked facility plus 18 inches each side. Inside a caution zone you expose every marked facility by soft excavation before blasting or digging.
'72 hours' reads like three days and is not: non-business hours do not count at all. Running parallel to a facility means soft excavation at intervals, as often as it takes to keep knowing where the line is.
48 hours notice before you break ground
48 hours excluding the day you call, weekends and holidays. Max 14 calendar days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 14 calendar days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- Minn. Stat. ch. 216D, §216D.04 (amended effective 2024-08-01)
Extendable to six months for a long job, but only if you arrange it.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two to ten working days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 21 calendar days from the day you actually start work
- Break ground within
- 10 working days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- RSMo ch. 319, §§319.015, 319.025, 319.026 (as amended by SB 133)
The facility's width plus two feet each side.
Two clocks again: 21 days of ticket, but only 10 working days to break ground.
3 working days notice before you break ground
Three to ten working days, counted from when it lands in the MS811 system.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Statute
- Miss. Code Ann. §§77-13-1 to 77-13-23
18 inches plus half the diameter, from the outside edge of the marks.
Ticket life is contested — the statute reads fourteen days, the centre publishes twenty. No figure is shown until that is settled.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two business days by statute; the centre advises three. Commence within 10 days, complete within 30.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 30 calendar days from when marking is finished
- Statute
- MCA Title 69 ch. 4 pt. 5, §§69-4-501, 69-4-503
18 inches — an operator accuracy standard, not a hand-dig statute.
3 working days notice before you break ground
Three full working days, clock starting the day after you call. No statutory maximum.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 28 calendar days from the day you actually start work
- Statute
- N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 87 art. 8A, §§87-117, 87-122
48 hours notice before you break ground
A 48-hour locate period excluding weekends and holidays, starting 12:01 a.m. the day after you file. No maximum found.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 21 calendar days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- N.D.C.C. ch. 49-23, §§49-23-01, 49-23-04
24 inches from the outer edges.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two to ten business days, day of request excluded. Clock starts the day after.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Statute
- Neb. Rev. Stat. §§76-2301 to 76-2334
18 inches each side of the mark, plus half the facility's width.
The seventeen-day figure crews quote is legally a prohibition on excavating past it, not a ticket expiry — different mechanism, same practical deadline.
72 hours notice before you break ground
72 hours excluding weekends and legal holidays, and no more than 30 days ahead.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 30 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- RSA 374:48–374:56; NH Admin. Rules Ch. En 800
The facility's own width plus 18 inches each side.
3 business days notice before you break ground
Three to ten business days ahead.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 45 business days from when the ticket goes out to the utilities
- Statute
- N.J.A.C. 14:2-3.3
Two feet horizontally from the outside wall of the marked facility. No mechanized equipment inside it until the facility has been located by hand digging.
Forty-five BUSINESS days is about nine calendar weeks — far longer than the number suggests.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two working days — the statute defines 'advance notice' as exactly that and then uses the phrase throughout, so there is no separate number to look up.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Ticket good for
- 10 working days from the day you call
- Statute
- NMSA 1978 §§62-14-2, 62-14-3
Eighteen inches between the facility itself and the cutting edge or point of any mechanical equipment, until the line is first exposed. Measured from the line, not from the paint.
New Mexico never says a ticket expires. It says you must request reaffirmation of line location every ten working days after the initial request, which comes to the same thing on site. The definitions section backs the figure up from the other end: a legal mark is one 'designed to last at least ten working days if not disturbed'. Positive response is available and the statute expects you to use it before you commute to the site.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two working days, counted 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Clock starts the day after. Max 28 calendar days.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 28 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- NRS ch. 455, §§455.082, .105, .110, .137; NAC 455.165
Two extensions maximum, so roughly 84 days is the ceiling on one ticket.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Two working days not counting the day you call, max ten. Clock starts the day after.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Statute
- 16 NYCRR Part 753
24 inches from the designated centre line, plus half the known diameter.
Two different centres depending on where you are. Part 753 states no ticket expiry.
2 working days notice before you break ground
Not counting the day you call, and no more than 16 calendar days ahead. A ticket filed at 9pm Monday still burns Monday, so you dig Thursday.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Break ground within
- 16 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- ORC 3781.28 (notice) and 3781.25 (tolerance) — rewritten by HB 227, effective 9 June 2026
18 inches each side of the facility itself, not of the paint line. Hand tools, hydro or air vacuum inside it.
Ohio rewrote its dig law in June 2026, so most summaries are out of date. HB 227 also added ORC 3781.261: anyone with responsibility in the 811 process needs documented damage-prevention training, provided at initial assignment and renewed every five years. If you are mobilizing a crew into Ohio, that paperwork has to exist before the first ticket. OHIO811 runs the training free.
48 hours notice before you break ground
48 hours excluding the date of notification, weekends and holidays. Clock starts the day after. No maximum in the current text.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 14 calendar days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- 63 O.S. 142.1 et seq., §§142.6, 142.7
24 inches each side.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two to ten full business days — full 24-hour days. File after 5 p.m. and it counts as 12:00 a.m. the next business day.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Statute
- OAR ch. 952 div. 1, §§952-001-0010, 952-001-0050
Ticket life was cut from 45 days to 30 effective 2026-01-01. The anchor is not stated cleanly, so no date is shown — assume 30 days and confirm.
3 business days notice before you break ground
Not less than three nor more than ten business days ahead. Complex projects need ten. The clock starts when PA One Call receives it, not when you dial.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Statute
- Act 287 of 1974 (73 P.S. §§ 176–182), as amended
18 inches from the outside wall or edge of the line, not from the mark.
There is no day count on a PA ticket — it stays good while your equipment is on site and the marks are visible. But leave the site for more than two business days and you have to re-notify. A crew that demobs Friday and comes back Wednesday is digging on a dead ticket. Pennsylvania also gives law enforcement actual stop-work authority in the field, which most states do not.
72 hours notice before you break ground
72 hours excluding weekends and legal holidays, max 30 days.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Statute
- R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 39-1.2, §39-1.2-5
18 inches — centre guidance rather than statute.
No expiry: the ticket stays good as long as the marks are maintained.
3 working days notice before you break ground
Three to twelve full working days, day of notice excluded.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side
- Ticket good for
- 15 working days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- S.C. Code Ann. Title 58 ch. 36 (version effective 2026-05-22)
Fifteen WORKING days is about three calendar weeks — longer than several states' fourteen calendar days, despite the smaller number.
48 hours notice before you break ground
Forty-eight hours, and the clock does not start when you call — it starts at 12:01 a.m. the day after you submit, skipping Saturdays, Sundays and state holidays.
- Statute
- SDCL 49-7A-5, as amended by SL 2026, ch 183, §1
No ticket life is shown. The twenty-one days quoted around South Dakota is not in the statute or in the board's rules, so it is not printed here. No tolerance width either — the chapter sets none. What it does set is strict liability: if the locate came back on time and the marks were adequate, an excavator who hits the line is liable for all damage proximately caused, full stop. If the marks were late or wrong, that flips, and you are liable only on proof of negligence.
3 working days notice before you break ground
Three working days ahead.
- Tolerance zone
- 24" each side, at least 48" total
- Statute
- T.C.A. §65-31-108(c)
Tennessee calls it a safety zone: at least four feet wide, no wider than the utility plus two feet each side. Hand dig where practical, or use pneumatic tools or a method the operator approves.
Same four-foot floor as Kentucky. A bare '24 inches' understates the zone on small-diameter fiber, which is most of what this board carries.
48 hours notice before you break ground
No later than the 48th hour before you start, excluding weekends and legal holidays, and no earlier than the 14th day before. Notify on a Saturday and you may start the following Tuesday at 11:59 a.m. — Wednesday if the Monday is a holiday.
- Statute
- Tex. Util. Code ch. 251, subch. D
No tolerance width is shown. The 18 inches people quote for Texas comes from a Railroad Commission rule that covers pipelines only and does not reach fibre, copper, electric, water or sewer. An excavator who has fully complied is not liable for damage to a facility that was not marked as the chapter requires.
3 business days notice before you break ground
No later than three business days before you start, and no more than 14 calendar days ahead. Requests are processed 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
- Ticket good for
- 21 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- Utah Code Title 54 ch. 8a, as amended by SB 145 (effective 2024-05-01)
SB 145 changed this in May 2024 and moved ticket life from 14 days to 21, so older summaries understate how long you have. The locate period is defined in business hours starting the first business day after you submit, which Blue Stakes renders as three business days.
There is no single number to print for this one.
Virginia does not work on a waiting period. You request a locate, then you check the positive response system — and you may not break ground until every operator has marked, said it has nothing there, or posted a response that lets you start.
- Statute
- Va. Code §§56-265.17, 56-265.19, 56-265.24
The 'three working days' figure quoted for Virginia is the OPERATOR's deadline to mark and post a response — by 7 a.m. on the third working day — not a period you can count and then dig. Waiting three days without checking positive response is a violation, which is why no notice number is printed here. A ticket runs 15 working days from 7 a.m. the next working day after the request, or 15 working days after your scheduled start date, whichever is later; that dual anchor is why no figure is shown either. Ask for a re-mark at least three working days before it lapses.
72 hours notice before you break ground
72 hours excluding weekends and legal holidays, max 30 days. Premark before you notify.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Statute
- 30 V.S.A. §§7001–7008
18 inches — but this is a marking-accuracy standard for the operator, not a confirmed hand-dig mandate for you.
Ticket life is around 30 days with two other expiry triggers, but the anchor is not stated cleanly enough to print a date you would plan around.
2 business days notice before you break ground
Two to ten full business days before the work-to-begin date. The day you call, weekends and holidays do not count. Mark your dig area in white paint before you call.
- Ticket good for
- 45 calendar days from when the centre receives your notice
- Statute
- RCW 19.122.030
Maintain the marks for 45 days or until the job is done, whichever comes first — past that you call for a new locate. The UTC publishes no tolerance width, so none is shown.
3 working days notice before you break ground
Not less than three working days before non-emergency excavation. The statute sets no maximum.
- Tolerance zone
- 18" each side
- Break ground within
- 10 calendar days from the start date you put on the ticket
- Statute
- Wis. Stat. §182.0175
18 inches between the marks and your equipment for UNEXPOSED transmission facilities — except what it takes to break the surface layer of pavement at the start.
Re-notify if the marks are destroyed or covered, if you have not started within 10 days of the scheduled date, or if the job stops for more than 10 days. The 30-day maximum some summaries quote is centre policy, not statute, so it is not shown here.
48 hours notice before you break ground
The statute counts in hours, not days: 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and no more than ten work days ahead.
- Statute
- W. Va. Code §24C-1-5
Digging without notifying is a misdemeanour carrying a fine up to $5,000. No West Virginia statute sets a tolerance width at all — the 24 inches crews quote is WV811 guidance, not law — so no figure is shown rather than a guessed one.
2 business days notice before you break ground
At least two full business days, and not more than fourteen business days ahead.
- Ticket good for
- 14 business days from the day you call
- Statute
- W.S. §37-12-302
Wyoming makes you WHITE-LINE first. Under subsection (m) you mark the path of your own excavation before the locator arrives, and the operator's duty to mark does not begin until you have. A crew that calls and waits without premarking is waiting on nothing. No tolerance width is shown here, and the twenty-four inches everyone quotes is why: that figure is how close the OPERATOR's paint has to be to the line, not a zone you must hand-dig. What the statute actually asks of the excavator is subsection (g) — 'hand digging or soft digging, as necessary' — with no width attached. The fourteen business days is a renotification cadence rather than a stated expiry, but a single project running longer means calling again on that schedule.
Where the blanks come from
51 jurisdictions are listed. Every one was read on the statute or the one-call centre's own page — none of it came from a summary, because the summaries get the units wrong and a wrong unit puts a crew on site without a ticket.
Some rows are deliberately short. Where a figure could not be pinned to one unambiguous meaning we left it out and said why, rather than print the reading that sounds most familiar. That happens three ways: the state has no waiting period at all and the number everyone quotes is really the operator's marking deadline; the clock runs from two different events and only one can be shown; or the inches in the statute describe how accurate the paint has to be, not a zone you hand-dig.
None of this is legal advice, and it does not replace the ticket. Call, wait, check the positive response, and pothole the crossings.