KRS § 367.4903 — KY Code / Title XXIX / Chapter 367 / Section 367.4903
367.4903 Definitions for KRS 367.4903 to 367.4917
Status: in_force

367.4903 Definitions for KRS 367.4903 to 367.4917.

As used in KRS 367.4903 to 367.4917:

(1) "Underground facility" means an underground line or system used for producing,

storing, conveying, transmitting, or distributing telecommunications, electricity,

gas, petroleum, petroleum products, cable television, hazardous liquids, water,

steam, or sewerage, including storm drainage;

(2) "Damage" means weakening of structural or lateral support or penetration of a

facility coating, housing, or other protective device. It also means the partial or

complete dislocation or severance of underground facilities or rendering any

underground facility permanently inaccessible by the placement of a permanent

structure having one (1) or more stories;

(3) "Demolition" means any operation by which a structure or mass of material is

wrecked, razed, moved, or removed by means of mechanized equipment, or

discharge of explosives;

(4) "Excavator" means any entity or individual, other than those exempted by KRS

367.4915, engaged in excavation, demolition, or timber harvesting using

mechanized equipment;

(5) "Operator" means any entity or individual owning or operating underground

facilities to serve the public, but does not include any entity or individual owning or

operating underground storage tanks that are subject to Subchapter 60 of KRS

Chapter 224;

(6) "Excavation" means any activity that results in the movement, placement, probing,

boring, or removal of earth, rock, or other material in or on the ground by the use of

any tools or equipment, by the discharge of explosives, or by the harvesting of

timber using mechanized equipment. Forms of excavating include but are not

limited to auguring, backfilling, digging, ditching, drilling, driving, grading, piling,

pulling-in, ripping, scraping, trenching, and tunneling. Driving wooden stakes by

use of hand tools to a depth of six (6) inches or less below existing grade shall not

constitute excavation;

(7) "Emergency" means there exists substantial likelihood that loss of life or property,

the inability to restore interrupted utility service, an imminent danger to health or

the environment, or the blockage of public transportation facilities will result before

procedures required under KRS 367.4909 to 367.4913 can be completed;

(8) "Protection notification center" means an operator-provided notification center

through which an excavator can contact the operator to enable the operator to

provide the excavator with the approximate location of underground facilities;

(9) "Kentucky Contact Center" means Kentucky Underground Protection, Inc.,

organized as a nonprofit corporation and a multimember protection notification

center providing a single telephone contact number and designated by the Kentucky

Public Service Commission to be the sole recipient of 811 dialed calls through

which an excavator may contact all Kentucky Contact Center members and all

affected member operators may receive information to enable them to provide the

excavator with the approximate location of underground facilities;

(10) "Routine road maintenance" means preservation, including road repairs and

resurfacing, and the replacement of signs, posts, and guardrails at the exact same

location when no additional penetration of existing grade is necessary, but does not

include road construction, installation of signs, posts, and guardrails, or any activity

that requires penetration of existing grade;

(11) "Approximate location," when referring to an underground facility, means:

(a) For underground metallic facilities and underground nonmetallic facilities

with metallic tracer wire, a distance not to exceed the combined width of the

underground facility plus twenty-four (24) inches measured from the outer

edge of each side of the underground facility; or

(b) For unmapped or untonable facilities, the underground facility shall be located

as accurately as possible from field location records and shall require

notification from the operator of the inability to accurately locate the facility;

(12) "Working day" means every day, except Saturday, Sunday, and holidays

established by federal or state statute. For purposes of measuring any period of time

prescribed or allowed under the Underground Facility Damage Prevention Act of

1994, a working day shall commence at 12:01 a.m. eastern time and end at 12

midnight eastern time excluding the day the locate request was made;

(13) "Nonintrusive excavating" means excavation using hand tools or equipment that

uses air or water pressure as the direct means to break up soil for removal by hand

tools or vacuum excavation;

(14) "Mechanized equipment" means mechanical power equipment, including trenchers,

bulldozers, power shovels, augers, backhoes, scrapers, drills, cable and pipe plows,

skidders, and yarders;

(15) "Normal excavation locate request" means a notification made to a protection

notification center where a request for locating utility facilities is processed;

(16) "Emergency locate request" means a notification made to a protection notification

center by an excavator to alert facility owners or operators of the need to begin

immediate excavation in response to an emergency;

(17) "Design information request" means a notification made to a protection notification

center by a person providing professional services and making a request in

preparation for bidding, preconstruction engineering, or other advance planning

efforts. A design information request may not be used for excavation purposes;

(18) "Large project request" means an area of excavation occurring on or after July 1,

2016, measuring more than two thousand (2,000) feet in length. Multiple

excavation notifications in an area may be considered together in determining if the

excavations are part of a large project;

(19) "Commission" means the Kentucky Public Service Commission;

(20) "Person" means an individual, an entity, a foreign entity, or other legal or

commercial entity;

(21) "Positive response" means an automated or written communication system provided

by each protection notification center for all locate requests the center receives

pursuant to KRS 367.4909 that allows excavators, locators, operators, and other

interested parties to determine the status of locating an underground facility and

requires response and verification by operators and excavators to comply with their

respective requirements of the Underground Facility Damage Prevention Act of

1994;

(22) "Unique identification number" or "locate request number" means a unique number

that any protection notification center or operator pursuant to KRS 367.4913 has

assigned to a locate request for excavation;

(23) "Locator" means any entity or individual that locates lines or facilities for an

operator;

(24) "Second notice" means a notice that is made by an excavator to a notification center

when an operator has failed to comply with the positive response requirements

under KRS 367.4909(5);

(25) "Tolerance zone" means a strip of land at least four (4) feet wide but not wider than

the width of the underground facility plus two (2) feet on either side of the outer

limits of the facility;

(26) "Untonable facility" means an underground facility that cannot be located from the

surface using locating methods which meet industry standards and that requires

additional efforts and extended time;

(27) "Work site contact" means an individual that will be present at the excavation site

when the excavation will occur;

(28) "Fiber-to-the-premises" means a service that provides network connectivity

between a location and a subscriber using fiber;

(29) "Communications network" means the platform that is used to exchange

information and data between two (2) or more devices that are connected to the

platform;

(30) "Communications service provider" means an entity that offers communications

services or some combination of information and media services, content,

entertainment, and application services over communications networks; and

(31) "Communications terminal" means the enclosure containing communications

equipment that connects users to the communications network.