HB5756eng 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB5756 Engrossed LRB096 18249 MJR 35684 b

AN ACT concerning utilities.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Underground Utility Facilities Damage Prevention Act is amended by changing Section 10 as follows:

(220 ILCS 50/10) (from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 1610)

Sec. 10. Record of notice; marking of facilities.

(a) After the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 96th General Assembly, all fiber-optic network conduit installed as new or replacement underground fiber-optic network conduit pursuant to subsection (b) of Section 9-131 of the Illinois Highway Code must be marked with detectable underground warning tape that is able to be traced by inductive locating. The marking shall be a minimum of 6 inches and be buried as close to the ground surface as possible, or between 4 and 6 inches deep.

The warning tape shall be American Public Works Association color-coded to match the type of utility line it is protecting.

(b) Upon notice by the person engaged in excavation or demolition, the person owning or operating underground utility facilities in or near the excavation or demolition area shall cause a written record to be made of the notice and shall mark, within 48 hours of receipt of notice or by the requested date and time indicated on the notice, whichever is later, the approximate locations of such facilities so as to enable the person excavating or demolishing to establish the location of the underground utility facilities. Owners and operators of underground sewer facilities that are located outside the boundaries of a municipality having a population of at least 1,000,000 inhabitants shall be required to respond and mark the approximate location of those sewer facilities when the excavator indicates, in the notice required in Section 4, that the excavation or demolition project will exceed a depth of 7 feet. "Depth", in this case, is defined as the distance measured vertically from the surface of the ground to the top of the sewer facility. Owners and operators of underground sewer facilities that are located outside the boundaries of a municipality having a population of at least 1,000,000 inhabitants shall be required at all times to locate the approximate location of those sewer facilities when: (1) directional boring is the indicated type of excavation work being performed within the notice; (2) the underground sewer facilities owned are non-gravity, pressurized force mains; or (3) the excavation indicated will occur in the immediate proximity of known underground sewer facilities that are less than 7 feet deep. Owners or operators of underground sewer facilities that are located outside the boundaries of a municipality having a population of at least 1,000,000 inhabitants shall not hold an excavator liable for damages that occur to sewer facilities that were not required to be marked under this Section, provided that prompt notice of the damage is made to the State-Wide One-Call Notice System and the utility owner as required in Section 7.

All persons subject to the requirements of this Act shall plan and conduct their work consistent with reasonable business practices. Conditions may exist making it unreasonable to request that locations be marked within 48 hours or by the requested date and time indicated on the notice, whichever is later. It is unreasonable to request owners and operators of underground utility facilities to locate all of their facilities in an affected area upon short notice in advance of a large or extensive nonemergency project, or to request extensive locates in excess of a reasonable excavation or demolition work schedule, or to request locates under conditions where a repeat request is likely to be made because of the passage of time or adverse job conditions. Owners and operators of underground utility facilities must reasonably anticipate seasonal fluctuations in the number of locate requests and staff accordingly.

If a person owning or operating underground utility facilities receives a notice under this Section but does not own or operate any underground utility facilities within the proposed excavation or demolition area described in the notice, that person, within 48 hours or by the requested date and time indicated on the notice, whichever is later, after receipt of the notice, shall so notify the person engaged in excavation or demolition who initiated the notice, unless the person who initiated the notice expressly waives the right to be notified that no facilities are located within the excavation or demolition area. The notification by the owner or operator of underground utility facilities to the person engaged in excavation or demolition may be provided in any reasonable manner including, but not limited to, notification in any one of the following ways: by face-to-face communication; by phone or phone message; by facsimile; by posting in the excavation or demolition area; or by marking the excavation or demolition area. The owner or operator of those facilities has discharged the owner's or operator's obligation to provide notice under this Section if the owner or operator attempts to provide notice by telephone or by facsimile, if the person has supplied a facsimile number, but is unable to do so because the person engaged in the excavation or demolition does not answer his or her telephone or does not have an answering machine or answering service to receive the telephone call or does not have a facsimile machine in operation to receive the facsimile transmission. If the owner or operator attempts to provide notice by telephone or by facsimile but receives a busy signal, that attempt shall not serve to discharge the owner or operator of the obligation to provide notice under this Section.

A person engaged in excavation or demolition may expressly waive the right to notification from the owner or operator of underground utility facilities that the owner or operator has no facilities located in the proposed excavation or demolition area. Waiver of notice is only permissible in the case of regular or nonemergency locate requests. The waiver must be made at the time of the notice to the State-Wide One-Call Notice System. A waiver made under this Section is not admissible as evidence in any criminal or civil action that may arise out of, or is in any way related to, the excavation or demolition that is the subject of the waiver.

For the purposes of this Act, underground facility operators may utilize a combination of flags, stakes, and paint when possible on non-paved surfaces and when dig site and seasonal conditions warrant. If the approximate location of an underground utility facility is marked with stakes or other physical means, the following color coding shall be employed:

(Source: P.A. 96-714, eff. 1-1-10.)

Section 10. The Illinois Highway Code is amended by changing Section 9-131 as follows:

(605 ILCS 5/9-131)

Sec. 9-131. Installation of fiber-optic network conduit.

(a) For purposes of this Section:

"Fiber-optic network conduit" means a pipe or duct used to enclose fiber-optic cable facilities buried alongside the roadway or surface mounted on bridges, overpasses, and other facilities where below ground placement is impossible or impractical.

(b) In order to ensure affordable high-speed, world-class core information and communication networks are available throughout Illinois, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Department of Central Management Services shall collaborate to install fiber-optic network conduit where it does not already exist in every new State-funded construction project that opens, bores, or trenches alongside a State-owned infrastructure, including, but not limited to, roadways and bridges. The Department of Central Management Services or the Department of Transportation may permit a third party to manage the fiber and conduit leasing. The Department of Central Management Services and the Department of Transportation shall take reasonable steps to ensure market-based, non-discriminatory pricing. Public bidding notices for such projects must describe the need for fiber-optic conduit or cable. The Department of Transportation shall report annually to the Governor and the General Assembly on the progress and any associated costs incurred by this Section. All fiber-optic network conduit installed pursuant to this Section must comply with subsection (a) of Section 10 of the Illinois Underground Utility Facilities Damage Prevention Act. This Section does not prohibit the State from purchasing or installing fiber-optic cable within the fiber-optic network conduit.

(Source: P.A. 96-37, eff. 7-13-09.)