Maine: 3 business days before you dig.
Dig Safe System (Maine) · 23 M.R.S. §3360-A
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
3 business days
At least three business days, and not more than thirty calendar days ahead.
Tolerance zone
18" each side
No mechanical excavation within eighteen inches of the marks until the facility is exposed (§4-C). Separately, the operator's marking may be up to three feet wide — that is their marking standard, not your hand-dig zone.
You must break ground within
30 calendar days from the day you call
Worth knowing in Maine
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.
Common questions about digging in Maine
- How much notice do you have to give before digging in Maine?
- 3 business days before you break ground, through Dig Safe System (Maine). At least three business days, and not more than thirty calendar days ahead.
- What is the tolerance zone in Maine?
- 18" each side. No mechanical excavation within eighteen inches of the marks until the facility is exposed (§4-C). Separately, the operator's marking may be up to three feet wide — that is their marking standard, not your hand-dig zone.
- How soon do you have to start work after calling 811 in Maine?
- 30 calendar days from the day you call.
Check it yourself
Every figure here was read off 23 M.R.S. §3360-A, 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 Maine?
Cable Crews is a job board for this trade where a listing cannot publish with the rate or the per diem left blank. Posting is free, no account. Post work · See the board