451 damages in 2024 happened on jobs where nobody ever opened a ticket. It has been the leading cause every year since 2018.
Every year Colorado 811 publishes its damage report, and every year since 2018 the same root cause sits at the top of the list: no notification made to 811.
In 2024 that was 451 damages — 21% of every damage reported in the state.
## It is not a knowledge problem
The excavators involved were, in the overwhelming majority, professionals. 86% of all 2024 damages involved contractors, not homeowners. These are crews who know the law exists.
What we hear at meetings, repeatedly, is some version of the same four reasons:
- The job was small. "We were only going down eighteen inches." - The job was urgent. A customer needed it done today and three business days felt impossible. - Somebody assumed a ticket already existed, opened by the GC or another sub. - The crew had dug in that spot before and believed they knew what was underneath.
Every one of those is understandable. None of them is a defense.
## What Colorado law actually requires
Under C.R.S. Title 9, Article 1.5, an excavator must notify Colorado 811 at least three business days before excavating. Since Senate Bill 18-167, facility owners are responsible for locating service laterals in the public right-of-way, and any facility installed after January 1, 2019 has to be electronically locatable.
SB 18-167 also created the Underground Damage Prevention Safety Commission, which reviews complaints against excavators, facility owners and locating firms, and assesses fines. In 2024 the Commission reviewed 59 complaints, found violations in 26, and assessed $501,500. In 2025 it held a record 34 hearings.
If you are in one of Colorado's larger home rule cities — Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Fort Collins or Grand Junction — that city may run its own safety commission and enforce the one-call law itself. Two of those are inside our own territory.
## The fix is boring
Open the ticket. Open it early. Open it even when the job is small, even when you dug there last month, and especially when you are not certain whether someone else opened one.
It costs nothing. The three-day wait is the expensive part, and the way to make it cheap is to build it into how you schedule work rather than treating it as an interruption.
- 811
- excavation
- best practices