An OHIO811 ticket starts a notification process; it does not mean every underground line has been located. For a Northeast Ohio fence, drain or driveway project, the useful question is not simply “Do we have a ticket?” It is “What did each notified utility report, and what remains unresolved at the site?”
The notice window changed in June 2026
The ordinary rule in Section 3781.28, effective June 9, 2026, requires notice at least two working days before excavation, excluding the notification day, and no more than 16 calendar days before starting. Working days exclude weekends and legal holidays under Section 3781.25.
Do not use older 48-hour/ten-working-day instructions to plan the current ordinary notification. Confirm the start date through the ticket process rather than counting from a contractor’s arrival date.
Special pipeline notices, work requiring utility protection or relocation, large phased projects and emergencies have separate provisions. The owner-excavator exception also has location and property-type conditions; hiring an excavator does not transfer that person’s notification duty to the owner. Ask OHIO811 about the appropriate notification and obtain legal advice for a disputed exception.
Read the response before making the next call
Use the ticket number at OHIO811’s linked response checker. Match the results to the notified-member list, not merely to the utilities appearing on a household bill. This LSL action table groups selected OHIO811 response codes by the follow-up question they raise.
| Response | Next question |
|---|---|
| 001: no conflict | Does the response cover the actual work area described on this ticket? |
| 002: marked | Where does this member's responsibility end and a privately owned facility begin? |
| 004 or 005: coordination | Who is arranging the unfinished locate, and what remains to be resolved? |
| 006: critical facility | Has the excavator arranged the requested additional commencement notice? |
| 999: no response | Has OHIO811 been contacted about the missing member response? |
For each unresolved member, keep one short note: member — code — contact — instruction — follow-up date. This is a coordination aid, not an alternative clearance system.
A missing response is not a site inspection
OHIO811 directs excavators to contact it for code 999, missing markings where above-ground indicators suggest underground facilities, or markings that have disappeared. Follow that escalation instead of guessing from silence.
Section 3781.29 also contains a deemed-notice provision when a utility neither marks nor contacts the excavator within the specified period. That legal provision and OHIO811’s operational instruction should not be collapsed into a claim that the ground is clear. This article does not decide whether a particular excavation may legally proceed.
Visible marks also do not establish an exact depth: the statute treats depth indications as estimates unless the facility has actually been uncovered or probed by the utility or excavator.
Before work resumes after a delay
Recheck the ticket, outstanding coordination and visible markings with the excavator. Section 3781.31 requires notice through the protection service when markings are destroyed or removed. It separately requires at least one full working day’s commencement notice when the utility requests it.
The utility responses do not answer the fence’s property-boundary question or the drain’s discharge-permit question. Keep those approvals separate. For a fence project, the Medina/Cuyahoga Falls permit comparison addresses that separate municipal step.
LSL checked the cited statutory sections and OHIO811 guidance on September 20, 2026. The action table is our synthesis of the public instructions; we did not submit a ticket, inspect markings or determine a project’s legal start date.