An economic growth trifecta of new-home construction, voter-approved road rehabilitation, and remodeling projects has produced a flood of calls for underground locater services.
“The Colorado Springs economy is booming, and we’re certainly feeling it,” said Sean Daugherty, customer care field supervisor for locating for city-owned Colorado Springs Utilities. It is great news that Colorado utility locate tickets have been increasing since last year.
By law, property owners and contractors are required to have utilities flagged before a shovel or backhoe hits the dirt on anything from installing a fence and planting trees to adding a garage or deck.
Requests for the free program are increasing in leaps and bounds, Daugherty said.
“We’re on track to more than surpass 2016 numbers,” he said.
The department fielded 68,490 residential and commercial calls last year through the state’s 811 hotline. That was 10,000 requests above the totals for 2015 and 2014, Daugherty said.
It’s the same story statewide, said Whitney Cregger, spokeswoman for Colorado 811. The nonprofit Utility Notification Center of Colorado, based in Golden, operates the state’s call center, which is also known as Colorado 811.
Notifications for locater services throughout the state increased 9 percent last year over 2015, Cregger said, and are up 4.5 percent this year through May.
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