PHMSA Enforcement Final Rule
State Law

Washington, DC

Time between locate request and site markings: Excavators in Washington, D.C. are to give a 96-business hour notice prior to the Start Work Date. Once submitted, the Response Due By is 72-business hours from time of ticket submission. Please note the 24-hour waiting period between Response Due By and Start Work Dates.

Ticket Life: 15 days from the call date excluding weekends and holidays.

No mechanized equipment zone: 18 inches

Penalties for violating the Miss Utility Laws: Actual repair costs, and civil penalties up to $2,500 for the first violation, $5,000 for the second violation, and $10,000 for the third or subsequent violation as well as up to three times the actual repair cost of the damaged utilities, plus punitive damages up to $10,000 per incident.

Washington DC

Ticket Check

Find a Ticket

Ticket Check is mandatory for all utility owner members in the District of Columbia.

Washington, DC business days = Monday through Friday from 7am-5pm EST excluding holidays. Ticket life in Washington DC is 15 business days from the call date. Tickets taken after hours and on holidays are treated as if they were taken the following business morning at 7am.

All Washington, DC ticket headers are accessible to status on Ticket Check.

Washington DC Ticket Check Status Codes

1 Clear/No Conflict.
2 Marked.
3 24-hour delay – Member requested a 24-hour locate extension.
5 Not Complete/In Progress: Locator has spoken to excavator and they have agreed to this message.
6 Locate discrepancy.
7 Not Complete/In Progress: Dispute.
8 Utility Locator has not yet responded.
9 Marked up to privately owned utility.
10 Incorrect work site mapping, insufficient information, and/or wrong address.
11 Critical Facilities: There are Critical Facilities within the vicinity of the excavation. The member should enter a contact phone number in status comments/notes where the excavator can obtain further instructions. The Member is required to re-status the ticket once communication has been made with the excavator. Critical Facilities should not remain the final response as excavation cannot begin until a proper status is provided.

Rules for Locator Use of the Status Codes

  • If code 1 is selected, it will be locked out as the final selection. The locator cannot change or delete a code 1 response.
  • If code 2 is selected, the only code it can be changed to is a code 1.
  • If code 3 is selected, the owner-member will be sent a “no response” every 24 hours until the ticket number expires or the ticket is coded as either a: code 1, 2, 5, 9, 10 or 11.
  • If code 5 is selected, it can only be updated to a code 1, code 2, code 9 or code 11; If a ticket is statused with a code 5 within the ten business days from the original date of the call then an updated status of a code 1, 2, 9 or 11 will be allowed until the one hundred twentieth (120) calendar days from the original call date.
  • If code 9 is selected, the only code it can be changed to is a code 1.
  • If code 10 is selected, it will be locked out as the final selection unless the excavator successfully processes a DISCREPANCY notice. If the ticket is not expired/locked, the Discrepancy notice is allowed via the IVR or Search & Status. Once the Discrepancy is processed, the status can be updated to code 1, code 2 or code 9.
  • If code 11 is selected, it can be updated to code 1, 2, 5, or 9. Tickets originally statused with Code 3, 4, or 5 can be updated to the Critical Facilities Code.
  • If the ticket is not statused by 5pm on the second full business day, the locator will only be able to status with a code 1, code 2 or code 5, code 9 or code 10.

Locator’s Status Comments

Status Comments may be added to all Ticket Check response codes as follows:

  • Upload with status via ftp and/or web, user ONLY; not the IVR.
  • One Status Comment permitted per status code. Only when a status code is inserted should any comments also be inserted. If a status fails to be inserted based on the Ticket Check rules, a comment for that status code should also fail.
  • Status Comments are restricted to a maximum of 200 characters each.

Cancellation Tickets

When the ticket is cancelled in the center, the ticket will be ‘frozen’ the ticket so that members cannot update the ticket statuses.

No Responses

  • Washington, DC tickets are considered ‘past due’ at 5pm EST on the third full business day from the date of the original call. If the original call date and time is outside of the DC business days and hours which is between 5pm and midnight M-F and all day holidays and weekends, the clock should be advanced to the next business day as if the ticket was taken the following business morning.
  • No Response tickets are processed and transmitted to the call center’s PRISM database for transmission to the member at 5pm EST on the third full business day from the original call date.
  • An update ticket is considered ‘past due’ at 5pm EST on the second full business day from the date of the submitted update. If the submitted call date and time is outside of the DC business days.
  • A subsequent No Response will be processed and sent every business day at 5pm ET for the through the fourteen (14th) business day following the original call date OR until the ticket is coded with a 1 (clear/no conflict), 2 (marked), 5 (not complete/in progress), 9 (marked up to privately owned utility), 10 (incorrect work site mapping, insufficient information, and/or wrong address) whichever comes first.
  • When calculating the business days, remember to factor in the additional day if the ticket is taken after 5pm-midnight on business days and all weekends or holidays.
  • If a 24-hour delay is requested and there is not a response for that district code by 5pm EST on the third business day following the original call date then a No Response (original) ticket will be sent to the given district code. Subsequent No Responses will be sent the next 10 business days unless the ticket is statused with a valid status.

Rules for Excavator Use of the Status Codes

Discrepancy Tickets

Discrepancy tickets are initiated by the excavator one of two ways; they may either request it via the IVR when listening to the ticket statuses or request when viewing the status on Search & Status. Once a Discrepancy is successfully processed either via the web or IVR, it may NOT be processed again. The only way it can be processed is if the status for the given district code has changed.

  • To process a Discrepancy via the IVR (866.821.4226):When listening to the ticket status via the Ticket Check IVR, for any district code on the ticket where the ticket is coded with a 1 (clear/no conflict), 2 (marked), 9 (marked up to privately owned utility) or 10 (incorrect work site mapping, insufficient information, and/or wrong address), the excavator will get a message “(Owner Member Name) is marked, clear or incorrect work site mapping, insufficient information and/or wrong address.If you have a conflict with this locate status, press 6 to send a discrepancy ticket or press 2 to continue. If the caller selects 6 to send the Discrepancy, the Discrepancy ticket will be created and queued to send to the given district code.
  • To process a Discrepancy via the web:When viewing the ticket on Search & Status (www.managetickets.com or www.missutility.net), the user will have the option to click the View Status button to see the list of district codes and the current Ticket Check statuses. If the ticket is not locked/expired and the status code is currently a 1 (clear/no conflict), 2 (marked), 9 (marked up to privately owned utility) or 10 (incorrect work site mapping, insufficient information, and/or wrong address) on any district code, there will be a box for the user to select to request the Discrepancy for the district code.The user will be prompted to enter their email address. An email will be sent to the user with a link to process the Discrepancy. Until the user successfully clicks the link in the email, the Discrepancy will not be processed and sent to the member.

Dispute Tickets

Dispute tickets are initiated by the excavator one of two ways; they may either request it via the IVR when listening to the ticket statuses or request when viewing the status on Search & Status.Once a Dispute is successfully processed either via the web or IVR, it may NOT be processed again.

  • To process a Dispute via the IVR (866.821.4226):When listening to the ticket status via the Ticket Check IVR, for any district code on the ticket where the ticket is coded with a 5 (not complete/in progress), the excavator will get a message “(Owner Member Name) is not complete, in progress. You or your company has been contacted by the locator for this facility.”If you dispute that you have been contacted by the locator, press 7 to log your complaint or press 2 to continue. If the caller selects 7 to send the Dispute, the Dispute ticket will be created and queued to send to the given district code.
  • To process a Dispute via the web:When viewing the ticket on Search & Status (www.managetickets.com or www.missutility.net), the user will have the option to click the View Status button to see the list of district codes and the current Ticket Check statuses.If the ticket is not locked/expired and the status code is currently a 5 (not complete/in progress), on any district code, there will be a box for the user to select to request the Dispute for the district code.The user will be prompted to enter their email address. An email will be sent to the user with a link to process the Dispute. Until the user successfully clicks the link in the email, the Dispute will not be processed and sent to the member.

Status Information Delivery to Excavators

Notification to the excavator is handled as followed:

  • If there is a properly formatted email address on the ticket then the system will attempt to deliver the status information via email.
  • If an email address is not in the correct format or blank but there is a valid fax number listed on the ticket, a fax will be sent. The system will attempt to transmit the automated fax. Should the attempt be unsuccessful, the system will attempt to deliver the fax as many as three times ten minutes apart.
  • If neither an email nor fax number is on the ticket, the status information will be available via the toll free telephone number (866.821.4226) or on Search & Status®.
    Note that any “Status Comment” posted with a Ticket Check status will be transmitted via email or fax but will not be available for playback on the IVR.

Notification is sent when one of the following occurs:

    • When the ticket is ‘past due’ OR when all owner members provide a status to the ticket, whichever comes first.
    • Subsequent email or fax will be transmitted if any of the owner members on the ticket change their status.

If the excavator does not receive an email or fax, they must call Ticket Check® at 866.821.4226 or visit www.missutlity.net to retrieve the status of the ticket prior to starting an excavation or demolition.

Search and Status

All DC tickets appear on Search & Status. The statuses should appear for all ticket headers. The statuses and any “Status Comment” posted appear for all tickets. Discrepancy and Dispute records also appear on Search & Status.