☰ Revisor of Missouri

Title XXI PUBLIC SAFETY AND MORALS

Chapter 319

< > Effective - 01 Jan 2009, 3 histories, see footnote (history) bottom

  319.015.  Definitions. — For the purposes of sections 319.010 to 319.050, the following terms mean:

  (1) "Approximate location", a strip of land not wider than the width of the underground facility plus two feet on either side thereof. In situations where reinforced concrete, multiplicity of adjacent facilities or other unusual specified conditions interfere with location attempts, the owner or operator shall designate to the best of his or her ability an approximate location of greater width;

  (2) "Design request", a request from any person for facility location information for design purposes only;

  (3) "Emergency", either:

  (a) A sudden, unexpected occurrence, presenting a clear and imminent danger demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. "Unexpected occurrence" includes, but is not limited to, thunderstorms, high winds, ice or snow storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, or other soil or geologic movements, riots, accidents, water or wastewater pipe breaks, vandalism, or sabotage; or

  (b) Any interruption in the generation, transmission, or distribution of electricity, or any damage to property or facilities that causes or could cause such an interruption;

  (4) "Excavation", any operation in which earth, rock or other material in or on the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment or explosives and includes, without limitation, backfilling, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, well-drilling, augering, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, driving, and demolition of structures, except that, the use of mechanized tools and equipment to break and remove pavement and masonry down only to the depth of such pavement or masonry, the use of pressurized air to disintegrate and suction to remove earth, rock and other materials, the tilling of soil for agricultural or seeding purposes, and the installation of marking flags and stakes for the location of underground facilities that are not driven shall not be deemed excavation. Backfilling or moving earth on the ground in connection with other excavation operations at the same site shall not be deemed separate instances of excavation;

  (5) "Excavator", any person making one or more excavations who is required to make notices of excavation under the requirements of sections 319.010 to 319.050;

  (6) "Marking", the use of paint, flags, stakes, or other clearly identifiable materials to show the field location of underground facilities, or the area of proposed excavation, in accordance with the color code standard of the American Public Works Association. Unless otherwise provided by the American Public Works Association, the following color scheme shall be used: blue for potable water; purple for reclaimed water, irrigation and slurry lines; green for sewers and drain lines; red for electric, power lines, cables, conduit and lighting cables; orange for communications, including telephone, cable television, alarm or signal lines, cable or conduit; yellow for gas, oil, steam, petroleum or gaseous materials; white for proposed excavation; pink for temporary marking of construction project site features such as centerline and top of slope and toe of slope;

  (7) "Notification center", a statewide organization operating twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year on a not-for-profit basis, supported by its participants, or by more than one operator of underground facilities, having as its principal purpose the statewide receipt and dissemination to participating owners and operators of underground facilities of information concerning intended excavation activities in the area where such owners and operators have underground facilities, and open to participation by any and all such owners and operators on a fair and uniform basis. Such notification center shall be governed by a board of directors elected by the membership and composed of representatives from each general membership group, provided that one of the board members shall be a representative of the state highways and transportation commission so long as the commission is a participant in the notification center;

  (8) "Notification center participant", an underground facility owner who is a member and participant in the notification center;

  (9) "Permitted project", a project for which a permit for the work to be performed is required to be issued by a local, state or federal agency and, as a prerequisite to receiving such permit, the applicant is required to notify all underground facility owners in the area of the work for purposes of identifying the location of existing underground facilities;

  (10) "Person", any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, cooperative, municipality, political subdivision, governmental unit, department or agency and shall include a notification center and any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof;

  (11) "Pipeline facility" includes, without limitation, new and existing pipe, rights-of-way, and any equipment, facility, or building used or intended for use in the transportation of gas or the treatment of gas, or used or intended for use in the transportation of hazardous liquids including petroleum, or petroleum products;

  (12) "Preengineered project", a project which is approved by an agency or political subdivision of the state and for which the agency or political subdivision responsible for the project, as part of its engineering and contract procedures, holds a meeting prior to the commencement of any construction work on such project and in such meeting all persons determined by the agency or political subdivision to have underground facilities located within the excavation area of the project are invited to attend and given an opportunity to verify or inform any agency or political subdivision of the location of their underground facilities, if any, within the excavation area and where the location of all known underground facilities are duly located or noted on the engineering drawing as specifications for the project;

  (13) "State plane coordinates", a system of locating a point on a flat plane developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and utilized by state agencies, local governments, and other persons to designate the site of a construction project;

  (14) "Trenchless excavation", horizontal excavation parallel to the surface of the earth which does not use trenching or vertical digging as the primary means of excavation, including but not limited to directional boring, tunneling, or augering*;

  (15) "Underground facility", any item of personal property which shall be buried or placed below ground for use in connection with the storage or conveyance of water, storm drainage, sewage, telecommunications service, cable television service, electricity, oil, gas, hazardous liquids or other substances, and shall include but not be limited to pipes, sewers, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, attachments, or appurtenances, and those portions of pylons or other supports below ground that are within any public or private street, road or alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or utility easement of record, or prescriptive easement. If gas distribution lines or electric lines, telecommunications facilities, cable television facilities, water service lines, water system, storm drainage or sewer system lines, other than those used for vehicular traffic control, lighting of streets and highways and communications for emergency response, are located on private property and are owned solely by the owner or owners of such private property, such lines or facilities receiving service shall not be considered underground facilities for purposes of this chapter, except at locations where they cross or lie within an easement or right-of-way dedicated to public use or owned by a person other than the owner of the private property. Water and sanitary sewer lines providing service to private property that are owned solely by the owner of such property shall not be considered underground facilities at any location. Water, storm drainage, cross road drainage, or sewer lines owned by the state highways and transportation commission shall not be considered underground facilities at any location. For railroads regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration, "underground facility" as used in sections 319.015 to 319.050 shall not include any excavating done by a railroad when such excavating is done entirely on land which the railroad owns or on which the railroad operates, or in the event of emergency, on adjacent land;

  (16) "Underground facility owner", any person who owns or operates underground facilities as defined by this section;

  (17) "Working day", every day, except Saturday, Sunday or a legally declared local, state or federal holiday.

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(L. 1976 S.B. 583 § 2, A.L. 1991 S.B. 214 & 264, A.L. 2001 H.B. 425, A.L. 2008 H.B. 1779)

Effective 1-01-09

*Word "auguring" appears in original rolls.


---- end of effective  01 Jan 2009 ----

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319.015 1/1/2015
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