April is Safe Digging Month; iFiber Reminds Homeowners to Call 811
Four Steps to Every Safe Excavation Project
Illinois Fiber Resources Group, NFP (iFiber) joins JULIE, Inc., in recognizing April is National Safe Digging Month.
Homeowners and professional excavators in Illinois are reminded to call JULIE, Inc. (JULIE) at 8-1-1 before every digging project this spring, regardless of the size or depth. This is a free call and service.
JULIE’s helpful call center agents are available to receive and process requests 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 8-1-1. E-Request is also a convenient option for homeowners who prefer to enter their own utility locate requests via www.JULIEBeforeYouDig.com.
When calling 8-1-1, homeowners and contractors are connected to JULIE, Inc., the Illinois One-Call System, which notifies the appropriate utility companies of their intent to dig. Professional locators are then sent to the requested digging site to mark the approximate locations of underground lines with flags, paint or both. Every six minutes an underground utility line is damaged because someone decided to dig without first contacting JULIE.
Striking a single line can cause injury, repair costs, fines and inconvenient outages. Installing a mailbox, building a deck and planting a tree or garden are all examples of digging projects that require a call to JULIE.
The depth of utility lines can vary for a number of reasons, such as erosion, previous digging projects and uneven surfaces. Utility lines need to be properly marked because even when digging only a few inches, the risk of striking an underground utility line still exists. For more information on safe digging techniques, visit www.JULIEBeforeYouDig.com and follow “@JULIE1call” on Facebook and Twitter.
iFiber is committed to excellence in serving new and existing customers with its open-access fiber broadband network throughout Northwestern Illinois. iFiber is a provider of 21st Century high-speed (up to 10Gb) network transport services to both the public and private sector in Northwest Illinois and beyond. It is a mid-mile network offering the opportunity to connect with long-haul networks serving a broad and diverse region.