Protect Your Property: The Essential Guide To Safe Digging With Julie
When planning any outdoor project, from planting a simple garden to major construction work, one critical step often gets overlooked: contacting Julie before you dig. This essential service helps prevent costly and dangerous damage to underground utilities across Illinois.
What is Julie and Why It Matters
Julie works to prevent damage to Illinois underground utilities by connecting homeowners and professional excavators with member utility companies via our free and easy facility notification center. Every year, thousands of utility lines are damaged due to improper digging practices, leading to service disruptions, costly repairs, and even serious injuries. By making a simple call to Julie, you're taking a crucial step to protect yourself, your property, and the community's infrastructure.
The service operates on a simple principle: knowledge is safety. When you contact Julie, they notify all relevant utility companies about your planned excavation. These companies then send professional locators to mark the approximate locations of their underground lines with flags or paint, indicating where it's safe to dig and where you need to exercise caution.
How to Contact Julie Before You Dig
Contact Julie before you dig online, by calling 811, or through remote ticket entry. The process is designed to be as convenient as possible, offering multiple ways to submit your locate request. Whether you prefer digital convenience or speaking with a live agent, Julie has you covered.
For those who want to take a hands-on approach, you can enter your own information directly into the locate request form using the same maps and drop-down tools as Julie agents. This self-service option puts you in control while still ensuring all the necessary information reaches the utility companies. The online portal is user-friendly and guides you through each step of the process.
Making the Most of Your Locate Request
To ensure the most accurate utility marking, consider adding attachments (photos or maps of the proposed dig area) — available exclusively to users who submit requests through the online portal. These visual aids can help utility locators understand your project better and mark the correct areas more precisely.
When taking photos, capture clear images of the entire dig area from multiple angles. If you have property surveys or site plans, these can be invaluable additions to your request. The more information you provide, the more accurate the utility marking will be.
Timing Your Request for Maximum Effectiveness
Call at least 2 days, not including the day you contact Julie, before you plan to dig and an agent will assist you with your locate request. This timeline ensures that all utility companies have sufficient time to send locators to your property. Remember, the two-day window doesn't include weekends or holidays, so plan accordingly if your project falls near these times.
For example, if you plan to dig on a Saturday, you should contact Julie by Tuesday of that week to ensure all utilities can be marked in time. This advance notice is crucial for coordinating between multiple utility companies and ensuring they can dispatch their locators within the required timeframe.
Available 24/7 for Your Safety
The service is free and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Whether you're planning an early morning start or need to make last-minute arrangements for an emergency repair, Julie is always there to help. This round-the-clock availability means you never have to compromise on safety due to time constraints.
The 24/7 availability is particularly valuable for emergency situations. If a severe storm damages your property and you need to make immediate repairs, you can still contact Julie to ensure you don't accidentally damage utility lines while clearing debris or making emergency fixes.
The Process: From Request to Safe Digging
We perform the vital role of connecting homeowners like you with utility companies so they can mark their underground lines and indicate where it's safe to dig. The process is straightforward:
- You submit a locate request to Julie
- Julie notifies all member utility companies
- Utility companies send locators to mark their lines
- Locators use color-coded flags or paint to indicate different utilities
- You receive a ticket number confirming your request
- You can then dig safely, avoiding marked areas or using extreme caution near them
Each utility type has a specific color: red for electric, yellow for gas, orange for communications, blue for water, green for sewer, and so on. Understanding these color codes can help you identify what type of utility is buried where.
Beyond Basic Digging: Special Considerations
Whether you're planting, building, adding, or fixing anything outdoors, all you have to do is to contact Julie before you dig. This applies to projects big and small. Many homeowners mistakenly believe that shallow digging doesn't require utility marking, but this is a dangerous misconception. Utility lines can be buried at various depths, and even hand tools can cause significant damage.
Consider these common scenarios where contacting Julie is essential:
- Installing a new fence or deck
- Planting trees or large shrubs
- Building a shed or other outdoor structure
- Installing a swimming pool or hot tub
- Setting up outdoor lighting or irrigation systems
- Driving stakes for landscaping projects
Looking Ahead: Julie's Commitment to Innovation
Learn about Julie's positive response system launching in 2025. This upcoming system will further enhance communication between excavators and utility companies, providing real-time updates on locate request statuses and improving overall efficiency.
The positive response system represents a significant advancement in excavation safety. It will allow excavators to receive immediate confirmation from each utility company about their response to a locate request, eliminating uncertainty and reducing the risk of proceeding without proper utility markings.
Member Responsibilities and Transparency
Members must post locate request statuses, keeping excavators informed before digging. This requirement ensures transparency and accountability in the utility marking process. If a utility company cannot mark their lines within the required timeframe, they must communicate this clearly to the excavator.
This transparency is crucial for project planning. If certain utilities cannot be marked, excavators can make informed decisions about whether to proceed, adjust their plans, or hire professionals with specialized detection equipment.
The Bottom Line: Safety First
Safe, free, and easy for homeowners and excavators before any digging work. The small investment of time required to contact Julie before digging pales in comparison to the potential costs and dangers of damaging underground utilities. From personal injury and property damage to service disruptions affecting entire neighborhoods, the risks are simply not worth taking.
Remember, it's not just about protecting yourself—it's about being a responsible member of your community. Damaging utility lines can affect your neighbors' services, lead to environmental hazards, and even result in legal liability.
Conclusion: Make Safety Your Standard Practice
Contact Julie before you dig and stay safe. This simple mantra should be the first step in any outdoor project plan. By making Julie notification a standard part of your project preparation, you're demonstrating a commitment to safety, responsibility, and community well-being.
The next time you're planning any outdoor work that involves digging, no matter how minor it may seem, remember: call Julie first. It's a free service that could save you from costly mistakes, dangerous situations, and unnecessary headaches. Your safety, your property, and your community are worth that simple phone call or online submission.
Make Julie notification a habit, not an afterthought. The peace of mind that comes from knowing you're digging safely is invaluable, and the process has never been easier with multiple contact options and user-friendly online tools. When it comes to underground utilities, what you can't see can hurt you—but with Julie, you'll always know what's beneath your feet before you break ground.
