A person, public agency or public utility responsible for excavating, discharging explosives or demolition shall exercise reasonable care when working in proximity to the underground facilities of any public utility and shall comply with such safety standards and other requirements as the authority shall prescribe by regulations adopted pursuant to section 16-357. If the facilities are likely to be exposed, such support shall be provided as may be reasonably necessary for protection of the facilities. If excavation is within the approximate location of facilities containing combustible or hazardous fluids or gases, only hand digging or soft digging shall be employed. As used in this section, “soft digging” means a nonmechanical and nondestructive process used to excavate and evacuate soils at a controlled rate, using high pressure water or air jet to break up the soil, often in conjunction with a high power vacuum unit to extract the soil without damaging the facilities.
(P.A. 77-350, S. 10; P.A. 87-71, S. 6; P.A. 13-5, S. 26; P.A. 14-94, S. 45.)
History: P.A. 87-71 required persons, public agencies and public utilities to comply with department of public utility control safety standards and requirements for working near underground utility facilities; P.A. 13-5 replaced “department” with “authority”, effective May 8, 2013; P.A. 14-94 deleted provision re support to be provided for protection of exposed facilities, replaced provision re gas facilities likely to be exposed with provision re excavation within approximate location of facilities containing combustible or hazardous fluids or gases, added reference to and defined “soft digging”, and made a technical change, effective October 1, 2015.