A utility and excavation information check

A landscape scope can include ground disturbance even when the finished result is grass. Preparation, edging, irrigation and associated excavation need their own utility-information review. This Calgary Project Workbook helps the owner and contractor organize that review without pretending that a worksheet grants clearance to dig. The damage-prevention process and utility-owner instructions control the work. Qualified people must resolve uncertainty before the affected operation proceeds, including when the apparent task seems small or shallow.

Describe the actual disturbance footprint

List the proposed operations and mark where each could disturb ground. Keep that footprint separate from the eventual planting boundary. A preparation route, irrigation connection or staging-related excavation may extend beyond the seeded polygon. Record the current drawing revision and which contractor is responsible for each operation so the relevant information reaches the actual ground disturber.

Calgary's City of Calgary — locate services before ground disturbance page directs people to the utility-locate process before digging. Use the current official process, and describe the actual location and work. A photograph of old markings or a neighbour's recollection is not a substitute. This record is intended to organize the required information, not to reduce the utility-owner conditions to a simple homeowner rule.

Track responses rather than a request number alone

A ticket number identifies a request; it does not, by itself, establish that every relevant response and instruction has been received. Keep the supplied documents together and identify who reviews them against the proposed work. Record unresolved responses, limitations and differences between the documents and field conditions for the responsible person to resolve.

The Utility Safety Partners — homeowner damage-prevention process, 2025 guide explains the distinction between notification, utility-owner responses and the conditions in locate documentation. Consult the current instructions directly. This workbook intentionally does not reproduce excavation distances, lifespan rules or methods as a universal recipe. Those details must come from the applicable documents and utility owner for the actual work.

Include privately owned and unlisted facilities

The Utility Safety Partners — locate and ground-disturbance questions guidance notes that member locates do not cover every private or customer-owned facility. Ask the property representative about known private systems and obtain the appropriate locating advice. Keep that inquiry as a separate line rather than assuming a member response settles the whole property.

Record what is known, where the information came from and what remains unresolved. An old owner sketch may help identify a question, but it should not be promoted into a confirmed location. If the person supplying the records cannot identify whether private lines exist, state that uncertainty and route it to the responsible reviewer. Do not proceed on the basis that nobody remembers a line being installed.

Use a document-control checklist

The checklist records questions; it is not an excavation permit or a declaration that the site is safe. The contractor must follow applicable requirements and utility-owner instructions. If the documents, marks or work scope disagree, hold the affected work and obtain clarification through the proper process.

Review a changed-bed example

Imagine a planting plan that originally includes surface work within a marked rear polygon. The owner later asks for a new edging trench and an irrigation extension into a side strip. The change log should identify those as changed operations and a changed footprint. The original request should not be assumed to cover the revision merely because both tasks belong to one landscape project.

The responsible contractor reviews what updated information or permissions are needed before undertaking the changed disturbance. The property team keeps the relevant drawing, request and responses together. No dimension in this example establishes a safe depth or clearance. Its purpose is to show why document control must follow the actual work rather than the title of the original quotation.

Use a cover sheet to identify the current document set and the person responsible for reviewing it. List superseded drawings separately so an old attachment is not mistaken for the work being undertaken. Keep the cover sheet descriptive: its purpose is to direct the ground disturber to the applicable information and unresolved questions, not to issue a clearance that the preparer has no authority to give.

Retain information through restoration and handover

Keep the applicable records accessible to the people performing the work, and update the responsible person when scope or conditions change. Include utility-owner restoration conditions where relevant. Do not remove or obscure information the active work still depends on merely because another part of the project is finished.

At handover, identify new private systems and the records the owner receives. Keep future-maintenance information separate from a claim that all buried facilities have been surveyed. Continue with the sequence of work, scope changes and grade and drainage review.