Michigan: 72 hours before you dig.
MISS DIG 811 · MCL 460.725 (MISS DIG Act, Act 174 of 2013)
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, 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
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.
Worth knowing in Michigan
'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.
Common questions about digging in Michigan
- How much notice do you have to give before digging in Michigan?
- 72 hours before you break ground, through MISS DIG 811. 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.
- What is the tolerance zone in Michigan?
- 18" each side, at least 36" total. 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.
Check it yourself
Every figure here was read off MCL 460.725 (MISS DIG Act, Act 174 of 2013), 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 Michigan?
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