{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-367.4903","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 367.4903","heading":"Definitions for KRS 367.4903 to 367.4917.","body":"As used in KRS 367.4903 to 367.4917:\n(1) \"Underground facility\" means an underground line or system used for producing,\nstoring, conveying, transmitting, or distributing telecommunications, electricity,\ngas, petroleum, petroleum products, cable television, hazardous liquids, water,\nsteam, or sewerage, including storm drainage;\n(2) \"Damage\" means weakening of structural or lateral support or penetration of a\nfacility coating, housing, or other protective device. It also means the partial or\ncomplete dislocation or severance of underground facilitie s or rendering any\nunderground facility permanently inaccessible by the placement of a permanent\nstructure having one (1) or more stories;\n(3) \"Demolition\" means any operation by which a structure or mass of material is\nwrecked, razed, moved, or removed by  means of mechanized equipment, or\ndischarge of explosives;\n(4) \"Excavator\" means any entity or individual, other than those exempted by KRS\n367.4915, engaged in excavation, demolition, or timber harvesting using\nmechanized equipment;\n(5) \"Operator\" means any entity or individual owning or operating underground\nfacilities to serve the public, but does not include any entity or individual owning or\noperating underground storage tanks that are subject to Subchapter 60 of KRS\nChapter 224;\n(6) \"Excavation\" means any activity that results in the movement, placement, probing,\nboring, or removal of earth, rock, or other material in or on the ground by the use of\nany tools or equipment, by the discharge of explosives, or by the harvesting of\ntimber using mechanized equipment. Forms of excavating include but are not\nlimited to auguring, backfilling, digging, ditching, drilling, driving, grading, piling,\npulling-in, ripping, scraping, trenching, and tunneling. Driving wooden stakes by\nuse of hand tools to a depth of si x (6) inches or less below existing grade shall not\nconstitute excavation;\n(7) \"Emergency\" means there exists substantial likelihood that loss of life or property,\nthe inability to restore interrupted utility service, an imminent danger to health or\nthe environment, or the blockage of public transportation facilities will result before\nprocedures required under KRS 367.4909 to 367.4913 can be completed;\n(8) \"Protection notification center\" means an operator -provided notification center\nthrough which an exca vator can contact the operator to enable the operator to\nprovide the excavator with the approximate location of underground facilities;\n(9) \"Kentucky Contact Center\" means Kentucky Underground Protection, Inc.,\norganized as a nonprofit corporation and a mu ltimember protection notification\ncenter providing a single telephone contact number and designated by the Kentucky\nPublic Service Commission to be the sole recipient of 811 dialed calls through\nwhich an excavator may contact all Kentucky Contact Center me mbers and all\naffected member operators may receive information to enable them to provide the\nexcavator with the approximate location of underground facilities;\n(10) \"Routine road maintenance\" means preservation, including road repairs and\nresurfacing, and the replacement of signs, posts, and guardrails at the exact same\nlocation when no additional penetration of existing grade is necessary, but does not\ninclude road construction, installation of signs, posts, and guardrails, or any activity\nthat requires penetration of existing grade;\n(11) \"Approximate location,\" when referring to an underground facility, means:\n(a) For underground metallic facilities and underground n onmetallic facilities\nwith metallic tracer wire, a distance not to exceed the combined width of the\nunderground facility plus twenty -four (24) inches measured from the outer\nedge of each side of the underground facility; or\n(b) For unmapped or untonable facilities, the underground facility shall be located\nas accurately as possible from field location records and shall require\nnotification from the operator of the inability to accurately locate the facility;\n(12) \"Working day\" means every day, except Saturd ay, Sunday, and holidays\nestablished by federal or state statute. For purposes of measuring any period of time\nprescribed or allowed under the Underground Facility Damage Prevention Act of\n1994, a working day shall commence at 12:01 a.m. eastern time and e nd at 12\nmidnight eastern time excluding the day the locate request was made;\n(13) \"Nonintrusive excavating\" means excavation using hand tools or equipment that\nuses air or water pressure as the direct means to break up soil for removal by hand\ntools or vacuum excavation;\n(14) \"Mechanized equipment\" means mechanical power equipment, including trenchers,\nbulldozers, power shovels, augers, backhoes, scrapers, drills, cable and pipe plows,\nskidders, and yarders;\n(15) \"Normal excavation locate request\" means a notification made to a protection\nnotification center where a request for locating utility facilities is processed;\n(16) \"Emergency locate request\" means a notification made to a protection notification\ncenter by an excavator to alert facility owners or op erators of the need to begin\nimmediate excavation in response to an emergency;\n(17) \"Design information request\" means a notification made to a protection notification\ncenter by a person providing professional services and making a request in\npreparation f or bidding, preconstruction engineering, or other advance planning\nefforts. A design information request may not be used for excavation purposes;\n(18) \"Large project request\" means an area of excavation occurring on or after July 1,\n2016, measuring more th an two thousand (2,000) feet in length. Multiple\nexcavation notifications in an area may be considered together in determining if the\nexcavations are part of a large project;\n(19) \"Commission\" means the Kentucky Public Service Commission;\n(20) \"Person\" mea ns an individual, an entity, a foreign entity, or other legal or\ncommercial entity;\n(21) \"Positive response\" means an automated or written communication system provided\nby each protection notification center for all locate requests the center receives\npursuant to KRS 367.4909 that allows excavators, locators, operators, and other\ninterested parties to determine the status of locating an underground facility and\nrequires response and verification by operators and excavators to comply with their\nrespective re quirements of the Underground Facility Damage Prevention Act of\n1994;\n(22) \"Unique identification number\" or \"locate request number\" means a unique number\nthat any protection notification center or operator pursuant to KRS 367.4913 has\nassigned to a locate request for excavation;\n(23) \"Locator\" means any entity or individual that locates lines or facilities for an\noperator;\n(24) \"Second notice\" means a notice that is made by an excavator to a notification center\nwhen an operator has failed to comply with th e positive response requirements\nunder KRS 367.4909(5);\n(25) \"Tolerance zone\" means a strip of land at least four (4) feet wide but not wider than\nthe width of the underground facility plus two (2) feet on either side of the outer\nlimits of the facility;\n(26) \"Untonable facility\" means an underground facility that cannot be located from the\nsurface using locating methods which meet industry standards and that requires\nadditional efforts and extended time;\n(27) \"Work site contact\" means an individual that wi ll be present at the excavation site\nwhen the excavation will occur;\n(28) \"Fiber-to-the-premises\" means a service that provides network connectivity\nbetween a location and a subscriber using fiber;\n(29) \"Communications network\" means the platform that is u sed to exchange\ninformation and data between two (2) or more devices that are connected to the\nplatform;\n(30) \"Communications service provider\" means an entity that offers communications\nservices or some combination of information and media services, conte nt,\nentertainment, and application services over communications networks; and\n(31) \"Communications terminal\" means the enclosure containing communications\nequipment that connects users to the communications network.","path":["KRS Chapter 367"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=54789","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:59:04Z","sha256":"1249ce8b81ae2204e0f2fcc7f459a4f3ba0979afef574aba64171fd24de634a8","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-367.4901","next":"us-ky/krs-367.4905"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}