14 CAR pt. 30, Appendix B
Policies and Procedures
(1) Forty-eight hours or two working days' notice is required by Act 600 of 1987. This does not include weekends or holidays. A person calling in to the Center at 4:59 p.m. on Friday for work which is to begin at 7:30 a.m. on Monday is considered to have given 31 minutes advance notice. (2) One-Call Center working hours are from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Center is closed on the following holidays — New Years Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. (3) Except in the case of an emergency, the computer calculates two working days from the time of the call and rounds the work time up to the next highest quarter-hour. This is the default work time. One-Call operators will explain the two-working days notice requirement of the state law and will ask if the default time is acceptable. The default time will be changed if the caller says the work will begin earlier or later. (4) All requests are assigned one of six codes to indicate the type of request being made:
First Request. The first call made by the excavator for this dig site.
Second Request. A second call for a dig site when some member utilities have not responded. Emergency. Underground facilities already have been damaged and must be repaired immediately. Emergency requests take precedence over all other requests and are given a work time of "as soon as possible".
Change of Information. Information given in a previous request, such as directions or time of work, is to be changed.
Cancellation. The caller wishes to cancel a previous locate request.
Major Project. The scope of the project is to cover a significant distance and/or an extended period of time. The role of the One-Call Center in these cases is to notify member utilities so ongoing local communications can be arranged.
(5) Within and adjacent to cities and towns, member service areas are identified by streets or portions of streets. Therefore, if the dig site is within or adjacent to a city or town, the location of the dig site is identified by its street address. All efforts will be made to identify a house number so the computer can process the request more accurately. Cross streets, landmarks, resident names and subdivision names can be given as additional information and may be helpful to member utilities, but this information is unnecessary for computer processing. If the location is near a house or building, it is important for the utilities to know whether to locate in the back, front, sides or some combination of these. If the location is at an intersection, they need to know if the digging will take place on the pavement or on one or more of the corners which need to be identified by direction. Example: NW corner or the SE corner.
(6) Member service areas outside the urban areas of cities and towns are identified by township, section and quarter-section. All callers will be asked for the range and township location of the dig site. If the section and quarter-section is known, the caller will be asked for directions to the dig site within the section or quarter-section, e.g., "across the road from Miller's Grocery of County Road 421."
(7) If the township and section is not known, the operator will ask for specific directions from the city limits of a nearby town. The caller must be prepared to begin directions from the city limits, giving highway numbers and directions, mileages and each turn involved until the location is reached so operators can find the exact location on the map and utility employees can find the dig site without further directions.
(8) Locations giving only pedestal numbers, pole numbers or spans are not adequate identification of a location. This information will be taken but only as additions to information actually pinpointing the location of the dig site.
(9) Since locate requests in or adjacent to cities and towns are processed automatically by the computer based on the street address, each different address at which the excavator will be working must be entered as a separate locate request in order to make sure that the request is processed accurately.
(10) Since state law requires at least two working days advance notification of an intent to dig, second requests will not be accepted or processed by the One-Call Center until at least 24 hours have elapsed since the first request was placed. When taking information on a second request, the One-Call operators will ask for the reference number of the first request. This number will be relayed to member companies who will then be able to check on the status of the line location.
(1) Based on the information given, the One-Call Center will locate a dig site as accurately and as closely as possible. The Center will make every effort to notify each and every utility which has lines in the area and will make every effort to avoid unnecessarily contacting utilities on the fringes of the site. However, if there is any doubt and if the operator thinks there is a chance that a members' lines may be involved, the operator will notify that utility rather than take a chance and not call. This policy is for the protection of the member utility as well as for the protection of the One-Call Center.
(2) If during the processing of a location, an operator discovers that the information given is inaccurate or incomplete, the locate will be put on hold and an immediate attempt will be made to reach the caller for additional information. Repeated attempts will be made until the location can be processed correctly. No request will be processed, though, if it must be based on guesswork.
(3) The One-Call Center can take no responsibility for member facilities which do not appear on Center maps or databases. Member utilities will be notified of locate requests if specifically requested by the caller, even if the dig site is not included in the member's database as supplied to the One-Call Center. Such notices will be coded as being sent at the caller's request and the notification to the member will include appropriate wording indicating that the caller requested they be notified. A monthly report will be submitted to the Board of Directors of such exceptions to the database processing.
(4) All members having underground facilities in the vicinity of cut or damaged lines will be notified that the cut has occurred. The member then can determine whether any action is necessary on its part.
(5) If the dig site is at a specific address (123 Main Street), the request will be sent only to those utilities which have said they wish to be notified for that portion of the street. (6) If the caller knows the street but cannot give a house number, the request will be sent to all member utilities serving any portion of that street since the Center cannot determine whether the dig site is in specific member service territories. (7) If the dig site is on a new street which is not in the One-Call master street listing for the town, the request will be sent to all member utilities serving any portion of the town since it cannot be determined whether the dig site is within specific member service territories. A member can, however, exempt itself from this policy on new streets by signing a waiver that (a) it does not wish to be notified for new streets, (b) it will promptly notify the One-Call Center of new underground facilities, and (c) it will hold Arkansas One-Call System, Inc., harmless from any claims resulting from damages to underground facilities as a result of the exemption from the policy on new streets.
(1) All members who receive notifications by phone will be called as soon as possible after the line location request has been given to the center. On some occasions, the phone is not answered in a member office. The Center will make repeated attempts to reach that member's dispatchers using the phone number which has been furnished. If several hours have elapsed and notification still is unsuccessful, One-Call Center will check the member's file to see if there are alternate numbers or locations which might be used to get the notification to the member.
(1) Verifications of notifications sent by TTY will be sent from the One-Call Center to members twice daily -- at the beginning of the work day and between Noon and 1 p.m. This list should be checked against TTY notifications received. It is the responsibility of the member to notify the One-Call Center as soon as possible if a request was not received. The notice then will be resent. (2) The first report of the day will be sent to all members, even if there are no notices to verify. If a member has not received this message by 8:00 a.m., the One-Call Center should be called as there may be a problem with phone lines or the member's modem or printer. The midday verification report is sent only to those members who have received notices since the first report of the day. (3) To notify the One-Call Center concerning TTY problems, member utilities should call 501/225-5995 or 800/482-8998 during working hours, or 501/225-5995 after 5:00 p.m. (4) If a member knows that there is a problem with its equipment (modem, printer or phone line), the One-Call Center should be notified immediately. Attempts to send notification will be delayed until the problem is resolved, or the notifications will be recoded for phone transmission. (5) If TTY capability in the One-Call Center is out for more than one hour, member dispatch offices are to be notified and notifications are to be recoded for phone transmission. (6) It is the responsibility of the member to insure that its printer and modem are properly plugged up, turned on, and connected from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
(1) It is the responsibility of member utilities to send updates of maps or of the computerized database whenever new areas of underground lines are developed. These updates are to be submitted as soon as possible. (2) No changes in One-Call Center maps or databases will be made based only on a verbal or phone communication.
(1) Changes in member phone numbers or in centers to be notified for a given area will be made only upon written notification to the One-Call Center. Such important changes cannot be made based on phone conversations. (2) The One-Call Center has three working days to incorporate member service area updates into the Center's database.
(1) Anyone may request the One-Call Center to conduct a search to see if prior notification was given on an accident. The fee for each locate researched will be based on $20.00 per hour, with a minimum fee of $10.00, billable to the party requesting the search. Such search requests will be processed as soon as practical by One-Call personnel, but in no case will such research take priority over the daily operations of the One-Call Center.
(08/16/1989)