2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 6 - Autonomous Municipalities (§§ 4001 — 4990-4990j) › Chapter 225A - Coordination Center for Excavations and Demolitions (§§ 4631a — 4631t) › § 4631a - Definitions

For purposes of this chapter, the following terms and phrases shall have the meaning indicated hereinbelow:
(a) Notice or notification.— Information to be furnished by excavators or wreckers to the Center in order to coordinate excavation or demolition works.
(b) Excavation and Demolition Coordination Center.— Government agency or entity attached to the Department of Transportation and Public Works to coordinate excavations or demolitions under the One-Call System, denominated in this chapter as “the Center”.
(c) Damages.— Disfiguration, maiming, wounding, disabling or death of a person; disfiguration, mutilation, removal, penetration, destruction, impact, displacement or the total or partial separation of a structure or underground installation, or of any protecting layer or casing, or other device of an underground installation or structure, or a landfill set in a manner which prevents access to the underground system control mechanisms; or the weakening of the structural or lateral support of an underground structure or installation; or the failure to adequately replace the cover of an underground structure or installation; or a landmine set in a manner which eliminates or prevents access to the underground systems control mechanisms which existed prior to the excavation or demolition, such as control valves in gas or fuel oil systems.
(d) Demolition or to demolish.— Total or partial destruction, breaking, movement, remodeling or removal of any structure or building.
(e) Building.— Structure to be permanently or temporarily occupied by persons, animals or equipment such as: condominiums, temples, offices, theaters, warehouses, schools, hospitals, stores, or any other of a similar nature.
(f) Power equipment.— Equipment operated by mechanical force including ditch diggers, bulldozers, power shovels, drills, scrapers, excavators, and any other equipment used to extract or install cables or pipes, or to make tunnels or drive piles or posts.
(g) Structure.— That which is erected, constructed, fixed or placed by human hand in, on or under ground or water; and includes without being limited to buildings, towers, posts, chimneys and transmission and distribution lines.
(h) Underground structure.— Line, cable, pipe system, conduit or other structure that is totally or partially underground, and that is used to produce, store, transmit, convey or distribute telecommunications, electricity, gas, water, steam, used waters, or liquids such as fuel oil, petroleum by-products, or of a hazardous nature.
(i) Excavator.— Person who intends to carry out or carries out an excavation or demolition.
(j) Excavation or to excavate.— Operation to move or remove land, rocks or similar material in or under the surface, or the movement or removal of layers of soil, including constructed or paved areas, or the perforation for soil testing, security fencing, posts or anchoring systems through the use of explosives and power or hand equipment such as, but not limited to, excavators, drills, cranes, and hammers in order to excavate pits, ditches, channels or tunnels, or make repairs, drive piles or level land, among others. For the purposes of this chapter, the plowing of soil for agricultural purposes shall not be considered an excavation.
(k) Secured installation.— Plot of land destined for commercial or industrial purposes or to other ends that is completely surrounded by a fence or other means to prevent access, including a fence with one or more access gates that are closed at all times, or kept under the surveillance of an individual empowered to prohibit unauthorized access.
(l) Operator.— Person who operates an underground structure, installation or system, or his authorized representative.
(m) Person.— Individual, corporation, partnership, association, government agency, public corporation and other juridical persons.
(n) Project.— Any public or private construction work being developed.
(ñ) One-Call System.— Communications system operated by the Excavation and Demolition Coordination Center whose purpose is to receive notification from excavators or wreckers interested in excavating or demolishing in a specific area, and diffuse said notification to the underground installations operators so that they may mark the place or passage through which their underground installations run in the specific area or so that they can point out that there are no such installations in the proposed excavation or demolition area, prior to beginning the excavation or demolition, in order to prevent damages to the underground lines or installations.
History —Sept. 11, 1998, No. 267, § 2, eff. 30 days after Sept. 11, 1998; Sept. 5, 2014, No. 149, § 6.