Ground Disturbance

Ground disturbances can potentially have major effects on operations and the safety of the campus.

Notifying 811 does not work for all utilities on campus. SMU owns most of the underground utilities and does not perform line locates in-house. Every excavation shall require a preliminary meeting with the SMU Facilities Management to determine historical knowledge of existing utilities. Unless a location has been deemed safe for disturbance, a third party may need to be hired for utilities locates.

Potholing or hand digging shall be required within three horizontal feet of located centerlines and in an area lacking knowledge.