Massachusetts: 72 hours before you dig.
Dig Safe · M.G.L. c. 82 §§40, 40A–40E
Read off the statute on . If it has moved since, tell us and we will re-read it.
A waiting period is not always permission. Some states also require that every operator has answered before you break ground, and some require you to mark your own dig path first. Where we have read that requirement, it is in the notes on this page. Where this page is silent, we have not checked it yet — silence here is not the same as absence. We are working through the rest and dating each one as it lands.
Notice before you break ground
72 hours
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.
Worth knowing in Massachusetts
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.
Common questions about digging in Massachusetts
- How much notice do you have to give before digging in Massachusetts?
- 72 hours before you break ground, through Dig Safe. 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.
Check it yourself
Every figure here was read off M.G.L. c. 82 §§40, 40A–40E, not off a summary — summaries of these get the unit wrong, and the unit is usually a weekend. Read the source.
Running a crew in Massachusetts?
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