Colorado SUE law : When does it apply ?
The Colorado law requiring the use of SUE applies to projects that meet the
following criteria :
1 . The project involves a construction contract with a public entity . 2 . The project is primarily horizontal construction ( not buildings ). 3 . The project ’ s excavation footprint exceeds two feet in depth and is a
contiguous 1,000 square feet ; OR the project involves any utility boring .
4 . The project is designed by a professional engineer .
Source : Colorado Revised Statutes 2018 Title 9 , Article 1.5 procedures of doing utility investigations and providing documentation . The new standards reflect improvements in SUE best practices since previous standards were published 20 years ago .
Ayres SUE professionals were ahead of the game regarding the new standards .
" We were aware of the new ASCE standards being written — we were actually performing these standards well before they were published ,” Hayes said . “ So our approach and quality has already reached a point that ’ s ahead of the curve .”
New Colorado SUE law In 2018 , legislation passed in Colorado became the first ( and is still the only ) state law mandating the use of SUE services during the preconstruction phase of many public civil engineering projects . The law also requires that the SUE work be overseen and stamped by a professional engineer . The law placed Colorado among the leaders in an international effort to address the general lack of reliable utility location information for use in the design phase of public projects .
“ Other states have processes and guidelines agreed upon to facilitate the coordination between the utility companies and municipalities that want to build projects , but those are often more informal , as opposed to a law that has an enforcement component ,” Mathison said .
“ One of the benefits of the Colorado law is that it requires a single SUE services provider to identify all of the utilities within a project area — as opposed to the typical 811 request process that may have multiple people each marking different utilities who may not see any conflicts between their markings and those of the others . With the Colorado law , there is good quality control built in to help
8 | TRENDS Ingenuity , Integrity , and Intelligence .