The 411 on Texas 811

Texas811 is the largest on-call contact company in the country with more than 2,000 members. Founded in 1984 and known as Dig TESS until 2009, the non-profit organization has utility companies and municipalities as members to provide free underground utility marking for planned excavations. Texas811 provides around-the-clock availability by phone or online. Underground utilities include electric lines, telecommunication infrastructure, oil and gas lines, and water and sewer facilities.

Texas811 encourages anyone digging for a project large or small, to call for locates prior to beginning work. Projects could range from planting a tree in your yard to a construction company installing the foundation for a skyscraper. The risks associated with striking underground utilities is the same for any size project, including personal injury, liability for damaged infrastructure, lost time and wages for the project, and potentially an interruption of service for the utility customer.

The process of locating underground utilities is as follows. First, the citizen or construction foreman contacts Texas811 to request utility location services for a specific area for a project. Texas811 identifies any nearby utilities and contacts the company to have them mark the buried infrastructure with small flags and/or paint. This one-stop service ensures that customers get all of the utilities marked without the hassle of the customer contacting each utility company individually or possibly overlooking an important utility.

Simply dial 811 by phone or visit their website at texas811.org to have underground lines marked prior to your next digging project!