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Anyone digging must contact OKIE811 to have facility operators locate and mark their underground lines.

What Do the Markings Mean?

High angle view of shovel on dirt at community garden

Operator markings of facilities include the following:

  • The appropriate color for the facility type.
  • When other companies use the same color, the marker will have a company identifier (name, initials or abbreviation).
  • The total number of facilities and the width of each facility.
  • A description of the facility.

Use paint, flags, stakes, whiskers or a combination to identify the operator’s facility(s) at or near the excavation site.

Marks in the appropriate color are approximately 12 to 18 inches long and one inch wide, spaced approximately four to five feet apart. When marking facilities, the operator considers the location, the land’s terrain, the type of excavation being done, and the method required to adequately mark the facility for the excavator.

Uniform Color Code

The American Public Works Association (APWA) developed a color code for temporarily marking underground facilities before excavation. The color code encourages all excavators, surveyors and engineers to use these colors to promote and eliminate damages to workers and the general public as well as prevent service interruptions to vital underground utilities.

Marking underground utilities with paint, flags, surface markers and underground marking tapes allows all excavators to understand the types of facilities and the approximate locations and routes of buried lines.

Types of utility markers that are flagged:

Okie 811 Flags-White

White
Proposed Excavation

Okie 811 Flags-Pink

Pink
Temporary Survey Markings

Okie 811 Flags-Red

Red
Electric Power Lines, Cables Conduit, Lightning Cables

Okie 811 Flags-Yellow

Yellow
Gas, Oil, Steam

Okie 811 Flags-Orange

Orange
Communication, Alarm, Conduit

Okie 811 Flags-Blue

Blue
Potable Water

Okie 811 Flags-Purple

Purple
Reclaimed Water, Irrigation, Slurry Lines

Okie 811 Flags-Green

Green
Sewer and Drain Lines

The following marking examples illustrate how an operator may choose to mark their subsurface installations:

Single Marking Facility

Marker_Meaning_Red_Single-01
Marking_Meaning_Yellow_Single-01
Marker_Meaning_ATT_Single-01
Marker_Meaning_COX_Single-01

Two Phase Primary

Marker_Meaning_Red_Double-01

Three Phase Primary

Marker_Meaning_Red_Triple-01

Fiber

Marker_Meaning_ATT_Fiber-01
Marker_Meaning_COX_Fiber-01

High-Pressure Gas Main

Marker_Meaning_Yellow_High_Pressure-01

Gas Main with Service T

Changes in direction and lateral connections are clearly indicated at the point where the change in direction or connection occurs; an arrow typically indicates the path of the facility.

Marker_Meaning_Yellow_Service_T-01

Conduit

Used for any locatable facility being carried inside conduits or ducts. The marks indicating the outer extremities denote the actual located edges of the facilities represented.

Marker_Meaning_Red_Conduit-01
Marker_Meaning_ATT_Conduit-01
Marker_Meaning_COX_Conduit-01

No Conflict

When there is “No Conflict” with the excavation, operators of a single type of facility mark the area “NO” followed by the appropriate company identifier in the matching APWA color code for the facility.

Marker_Meaning_Yellow_Clear-01-01
Marker_Meaning_COX_Clear-01
Marker_Meaning_ATT_Clear-01
Marker_Meaning_Red_Clear-01

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