Today is August 11. If you put the date into numbers, it's 8-1-1. 8-1-1 is also the number you dial to make sure you don't cut underground utility lines.
Wisconsin Public Service spokesperson Matt Cullen talks about Digger's Hotline...
"....it goes back to the number 8-1-1. That's the number that anyone who is planning to dig or excavate must call. That goes to Digger's Hotline here in Wisconsin to have underground utilities marked. What we want people to do is call at least 3 working days before they begin their digging or excavation project...."
Cullen says calling to find utility lines is important to continue utility service...
"....another thing people don't know about the process is WPS does not charge a fee to mark our underground utilities so if you notify Diggers Hotline that you are planning to dig or excavate an area, we will come out and mark where our natural gas and electric utilities are, again, free of charge...."
WPS owns and operates more than 14,000 miles of underground electric and natural gas equipment throughout northeast and north central Wisconsin.
In the past 19 months, there have been 448 incidents in which digging has damaged WPS underground utilities. On 56 occasions, a locate request was not made to have underground utilities marked, causing 474 customers to experience an electric or natural gas outage.
