PRINTER'S NO. 3917
No. 2736 Session of 2000
INTRODUCED BY TRAVAGLIO, M. COHEN, BELFANTI, CORRIGAN, DERMODY,
FARGO, GEORGE, HALUSKA, HENNESSEY, MELIO, ORIE, SHANER,
TANGRETTI, WASHINGTON, WILLIAMS, WOJNAROSKI, YOUNGBLOOD AND
WANSACZ, SEPTEMBER 26, 2000
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS, SEPTEMBER 26, 2000
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of December 10, 1974 (P.L.852, No.287),
2 entitled "An act to protect the public health and safety by
3 preventing excavation or demolition work from damaging
4 underground lines used in providing electricity,
5 communication, gas, oil delivery, oil product delivery,
6 sewage, water or other service; imposing duties upon the
7 providers of such service, recorders of deeds, and persons
8 and other entities preparing drawings or performing
9 excavation or demolition work; and prescribing penalties,"
10 further providing for the definition of "line" or "facility."
11 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
12 hereby enacts as follows:
13 Section 1. Section 1 of the act of December 10, 1974
14 (P.L.852, No.287), referred to as the Underground Utility Line
15 Protection Law, amended December 19, 1996 (P.L.1460, No.187), is
16 amended to read:
17 Section 1. As used in this act:
18 "Consumer Price Index" means the index of consumer prices
19 developed and updated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the
20 United States Department of Labor.
21 "Contractor" means any person who or which performs
1 excavation or demolition work for himself or for another person.
2 "Demolition work" means the partial or complete destruction
3 of a structure, by any means, served by or adjacent to a line or
4 lines.
5 "Designer" means any architect, engineer or other person who
6 or which prepares a drawing for a construction or other project
7 which requires excavation or demolition work as herein defined.
8 "Emergency" means a sudden or unforeseen occurrence involving
9 a clear and immediate danger to life or property, including, but
10 not limited to, serious breaks or defects in a facility owner's
11 lines.
12 "Excavation work" means the use of powered equipment or
13 explosives in the movement of earth, rock or other material, and
14 includes but is not limited to anchoring, augering, backfilling,
15 blasting, boring, digging, ditching, drilling, driving-in,
16 grading, plowing-in, pulling-in, ripping, scraping, trenching
17 and tunneling, but does not include soft excavation technology
18 such as vacuum, high pressure air or water, tilling of soil for
19 agricultural purposes to a depth of less than eighteen inches,
20 operations necessary or incidental to the purposes of finding or
21 extracting natural resources, political subdivisions performing
22 minor routine maintenance up to a depth of less than eighteen
23 inches within the right-of-way of roads or employes of the
24 Department of Transportation performing within the scope of
25 their employment work up to a depth of twenty-four inches
26 beneath the existing surface within the right-of-way of a State
27 highway.
28 "Facility owner" means the public utility or agency,
29 political subdivision, municipality, authority, rural electric
30 cooperative or other person or entity who or which owns or
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1 operates a line. The term does not include the Department of
2 Transportation within a State highway right-of-way.
3 "Line" or "facility" means an underground conductor or
4 underground pipe or structure used in providing electric or
5 communication service, or an underground pipe used in carrying
6 or providing gas, oil or oil product, sewage, water or other
7 service to one or more consumers or customers of such service
8 and the appurtenances thereto, regardless of whether such line
9 or structure is located on land owned by a person or public
10 agency or whether it is located within an easement or right-of-
11 way. The term includes [storm drainage and] traffic loops.
12 "Minor routine maintenance" means shaping of or adding dust
13 palliative to unpaved roads, removal and application of patches
14 to the surface or base of flexible base, rigid base or rigid
15 surface roads by either manual or mechanized method to the
16 extent of the existing exposed base material, crack and joint
17 sealing, adding dust palliative to road shoulders, patching of
18 shoulders and shoulder bases by either manual or mechanized
19 methods to the extent of the existing exposed base, and cleaning
20 of inlets and drainage pipes and ditches.
21 "One Call System" means a communication system established
22 within this Commonwealth to provide a single toll-free telephone
23 number for contractors or designers or any other person covered
24 by this act to call facility owners and notify them of their
25 intent to perform excavation, demolition or similar work as
26 defined by this act. A One Call System shall be incorporated and
27 operated as a nonprofit corporation pursuant to 15 Pa.C.S. Pt.
28 II Subpt. C (relating to nonprofit corporations).
29 "Operator" means any individual in physical control of
30 powered equipment or explosives when being used to perform
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1 excavation or demolition work.
2 "Owner" means any person who or which engages a contractor
3 for construction or any other project which requires excavation
4 or demolition work as herein defined.
5 "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation,
6 political subdivision, a municipal authority, the Commonwealth
7 and its agencies and instrumentalities, or any other entity.
8 "Powered equipment" means any equipment energized by an
9 engine or motor and used in excavation or demolition work.
10 "Site" means the specific place where excavation or
11 demolition work is being or is planned to be performed.
12 "Tolerance zone" means the horizontal space within eighteen
13 inches of the outside wall or edge of a line or facility.
14 "Working day" means any day except a Saturday, Sunday or
15 legal holiday prescribed by act of the General Assembly.
16 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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