<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<section article="gpu" article_name="Public Utilities" number="12-101" title_number="12" title_name="Underground Facilities" subtitle_number="1" subtitle_name="Excavation or Demolition Near Underground Facilities">
  <level label="a">
    <text>In this subtitle the following words have the meanings indicated.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="b">
    <text>“Authority” means the Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Authority.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="c">
    <text>“Business day” means a calendar day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="d">
    <text>“Clear evidence” means a visible indication that an underground facility or structure is not marked as required in § 12–126 of this subtitle.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="e">
    <text>“Contract locator” means a person contracted by an owner specifically to determine the approximate horizontal location of the owner’s underground facilities as specified in the ticket issued by the one–call system.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="f">
    <text>“Cross–bore” means an intersection of an existing underground facility by a second underground facility resulting in contact between the two facilities that results in the original facility being damaged, dislocated, or disturbed.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="g">
    <text>“Damage” means any excavation activity that results in the need to repair an underground facility due to a weakening or the partial or complete destruction of the facility, including the protective coating, lateral support, cathodic protection, or housing for the underground facility.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="h">
    <text>“Demolition” means an operation in which a structure or mass of material is wrecked, razed, rended, moved, or removed using any tool, equipment, or explosive.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="i">
    <text>“Designer” means a licensed architect, professional engineer, professional land surveyor, or professional landscape architect, as those terms are defined in the Business Occupations and Professions Article, who prepares a drawing for a project that may require excavation or demolition.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="j">
    <text>“Detectable underground facility” means an underground facility that utilizes a location device that is installed underground, such as an electronic marker or a traceable wire that may be detected above ground with an electronic locating device.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="k">
    <text>“Emergency” means a sudden or unexpected occurrence involving a clear and imminent danger demanding immediate action to prevent or mitigate loss of, or injury to, life, health, property, or an essential public service.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="l">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Excavation” means an operation in which earth, rock, or other material in or on the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by using any tool, equipment, or explosive.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Excavation” includes grading, trenching, digging, ditching, dredging, drilling, boring, augering, tunnelling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, pipe bursting, and driving a mass of material.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="m">
    <text>“Excavator” means a person that performs an excavation or a demolition.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="n">
    <text>“Extent of work” means a clear and concise description of work to be done at a property, including the property address or specific distance and direction from a specified point, not to exceed 1,320 feet, that completely depicts the scope of work and that the excavator can complete within the designated life of the ticket.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="o">
    <text>“Fund” means the Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Education and Outreach Fund.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="p">
    <text>“Legal holiday” means:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>the day on which a legal holiday, as defined in § 1–111 of the General Provisions Article, is observed; or</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>a federal legal holiday.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="q">
    <text>“Locatable underground facility” means an underground facility that can be identified or discovered by methods including installation records, facility markers or risers, locator tape, manual location techniques, surface extensions of underground facilities, or any visible indicators that a facility or structure is buried underground in the immediate vicinity.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="r">
    <text>“Mark” means a line, an arrow, a curve, a whisker, a flag, a stake, or any other symbol, placed or made to identify an underground facility.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="s">
    <text>“One–call system” means a communications system in the State that:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>allows a person to notify owner–members of planned excavation or demolition by:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>calling a toll–free number or abbreviated dialing code; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>initiating an interactive Internet ticket request; and</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>maintains an underground facilities information exchange system.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="t">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Owner” means a person that:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>owns or operates an underground facility; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>has the right to bury an underground facility.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Owner” includes:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>a public utility;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>a telecommunications corporation;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>a cable television corporation;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iv">
        <text>a political subdivision;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="v">
        <text>a municipal corporation;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="vi">
        <text>a steam heating company;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="vii">
        <text>an authority; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="viii">
        <text>a unit of the State.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="u">
    <text>“Owner–member” means an owner that participates as a member in a one–call system.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="v">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Person” has the meaning stated in § 1–101 of this article.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Person” includes:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>a municipal corporation;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>the State;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>a political subdivision of the State; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iv">
        <text>any governmental unit, department, or agency.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="w">
    <text>“Primary contractor” means the person that:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>initiates the notification to the one–call system to establish a ticket;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>performs excavation duties for the duration of the ticket; and</text>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>is on site to supervise all activities, employees, and any temporary excavator added to the valid ticket as required in § 12–130(b) of this subtitle.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="x">
    <text>“Temporary excavator” means a person that the primary contractor may identify and add as a subcontracting excavator to an existing ticket under § 12–130(c) of this subtitle.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="y">
    <text>“Ticket” means a numbered document issued by a one–call system to notify owner–members that:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>a person intends to perform an excavation or demolition; or</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>a designer has requested information on the location of underground facilities under § 12–131 of this subtitle.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="z">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Trenchless technology” means a family of methods, materials, and equipment capable of being used for the installation of new or replacement, or rehabilitation of existing, underground infrastructure that requires excavation with minimal disruption to surface traffic business and other activities.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Trenchless technology” includes:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>tunnelling;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>microtunnelling;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>horizontal directional drilling or directional boring;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iv">
        <text>pipe ramming;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="v">
        <text>pipe jacking;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="vi">
        <text>moling;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="vii">
        <text>horizontal auger boring; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="viii">
        <text>any other method for the installation of pipelines and cables below ground with minimal excavation.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="aa">
    <text>“Underground facilities information exchange system” means an automated voice response unit or interactive Internet access system that is maintained as part of a one–call system.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="bb">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Underground facility” means an item that is buried, placed below ground, or submerged for use in connection with the:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>storage or conveyance of water, sewage, oil, gas, or other substances; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>transmission or conveyance of telecommunications, cable television, or electricity.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Underground facility” includes pipes, sewers, combination storm/sanitary sewer systems, geothermal systems, conduits, cables, valves, lines, wires, manholes, and attachments.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>“Underground facility” does not include a storm drain.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
</section>
