Spring has arrived, and many homeowners are taking on outdoor home improvement projects, including planting flowers and installing decks. April is National Safe Digging Month, an awareness event coordinated by the Common Ground Alliance to increase the practice of safe digging across the nation. Throughout the month, CGA will encourage individuals to call 811 before starting digging projects – big or small.

811 is a federally mandated number to help prevent diggers from unintentionally hitting underground utility lines, which can result in injuries, property damage and inconvenient outages.

CGA encourages homeowners and contractors to call 811 a few days before digging. This will allow One Call Center operators to notify the affected utility companies, who will then send a professional to the digging location to mark the approximate location of any utility lines.

When digging, be sure to dig around the marks and not on them. Because utility lines may be buried at a shallow depth, it is important to recognize that even an unintended push of the shovel can have dangerous consequences.

For more information on National Safe Digging Month, visit www.call811.com.