Questions? We ve Got Answers.

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1 Questions? We ve Got Answers. What is i-notice? It is defined as the process by which an excavator can meet all the requirements of a location request by using remote ticket entry. Remote ticket entry allows excavators to create and enter location requests into Dig Safely New York s Irth database system through the use of the internet. When do I use i-notice? I-notice can be used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The only limitation to using i-notice is that it is strictly used for regular location requests. A regular location request is termed as any dig notification that complies with the two to ten full working days of notification requirement as stated in New York State Code Rule 753. Who can use i-notice? Anyone can use i-notice who has access to the internet, an account and internet explorer 4.0 or newer. High speed internet connection is strongly recommended. For further details see the requirements section of this guide. Where can I use i-notice? With today s technology the possibilities are becoming endless. You are able to access your account from any computer that meets the requirements of the i- notice system. Access is possible from your office, home, the jobsite, and pretty much anywhere else you can gain access to the internet. Why should I use i-notice? The advantages of using the i-notice system are simple. i-notice grants more flexibility in your schedule because you no longer have to call in your location request between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Record keeping is made easier because i-notice allows you to print a copy of the location request containing a list of facility operators that have been notified for your particular location request as well as your ticket I.D. number. There is no waiting on the telephone thus verbal transcription errors are eliminated. i-notice allows you access to Dig Safely New York s current maps so you can determine your dig location. How do I use i-notice? For the answer to that question follow this comprehensive guide and you can t miss. 1

2 This comprehensive guide is designed to aid you in using the i-notice process of entering a location request. There are several facets of the i-notice system in which you will need to have a grasp upon in order to fully utilize this system. The following guide will help you in that process. We will start by looking briefly at what is required to get you started using i-notice. Basic Notice Creation requires: Requirements Minimum encryption capability of 4.0 bit SSL (128 preferred), using one of the following: Microsoft (MS) Internet Explorer 5.5 or newer. Viewing the map during notice creation. This is where we recommend a high speed connection, you MUST view the map to create a dig request. You must use MS Internet Explorer 4.0 and MS Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 or XP. A Mac running Win9x under VPC or Soft Windows does seem to work. Getting A User Account If your computer meets the requirements section above, sign up! Signing up for i-notice is quite easy - simply send an to: register@digsafelynewyork.com Please remember that you need to use an program to do this. It is also your responsibility to keep your address current with our office. The request you send must include: Your (full) name The company name(s) you ll be creating stake-out requests for. Your company ID number(s) used when calling in stake-out requests. Address (street, city, state, zip). Telephone, Fax. A valid to reply to, for you and you alone. Note the following: The address you provide must be a private account for you, and you alone. If the address is shared, other people could see and steal your account information when Dig Safely New York issues it to you. Remember, You are responsible for your map gridding and all other information that is on the dig request. Your account will be terminated if used by anyone other than yourself. 2

3 Security, Sharing User Accounts Section 1 (Fig. 1) ENTER (Fig. 2) Dig Safely New York employees will never ask you for your password or give your password to anyone. If you have co-workers who will be helping you with these activities, or who will be submitting location requests in your absence have them send us an and we ll set them up with their own account. This insures that the location requests are being created by that particular registered individual. We require each user to have their own user account, and that noone else use that account. The reasons for this are simple. Each location request is stamped with the name of the user who created it. If only one person is using that name, tracking down the person who created a given location request is trivial, should any questions arise about a digsite. Secondly, Web Based Ticket Entry requires training, and anyone you share your account with has obviously not been trained by our staff to use the system. Training insures that each and every user knows and demonstrates proper use of i-notice thus preventing, incorrect member utility notification, damage to property, life and or vital service. So in short, don t share your account. Getting Started Logging On With Your User Account Step 1 - From the main Dig Safely New York website ( click on the Irth construction guy icon (see figure 1) This action will take you to the Irth resources page. This page offers you several options in which you can get helpful news and tips. The page also contains the figure 2 icon. Click on it, and proceed to the next step. Before you reach the login page you will be asked to accept a security certificate. In order to proceed you must answer yes to the question that pops up. Click on yes, and proceed. Step 2 - Login to the Irth Internet system with the username and password that was issued to you from Dig Safely New York. Also, if there is anything happening with our system or if there is any important information to relay to you, it will be displayed on this login page as a News Alert. Following the input of your username and password click the Login button. This action will place you at the Irth Internet main menu. 3

4 The Irth Internet Main Menu From this location you are offered several options. Irth help is also available to you. These options are available for your convenience. For all intents and purposes of this user guide we will strictly be concentrating on the Notice Creation option and Notice Manager. (see example below) Response Manager is not operating at the time of this Printing so it will not be covered now. Step 3 - Click on the notice creation option as shown above. Following the main menu page a disclaimer will be displayed on your screen. Please be sure to read its contents carefully. You must agree to it s contents before gaining access to create a stake-out request (Fig. 3). If you do not agree to this disclaimer, you will be returned to the Irth Main Menu. (Fig. 3) Upon agreeing to the terms of the disclaimer, you will gain access to the company information page where you can begin creating your stake-out request. 4

5 The Getting Started portion of using the i-notice system is now complete. You have logged in to the system using your user name and password, and have agreed to the terms of our disclaimer. We are now ready to move on to section two. Section II. Company Information - Step 1 of 3 Section two is used to identify the people who will be performing the excavation and those who are requesting the location request. This page is known as the Excavator Information page or Step 1 of 3. On this screen there are several fields which will already be filled out with your companies information. An example of a completed Excavator Information page is below. Do NOT change any of your company info. Call us at A completed E x c a v a t o r Information page would look similar to this one. Note: Please verify that all the information in your company profile is correct. If it is not, you will need to call the Dig Safely New York office to get it corrected. Do not correct it yourself. You may change the Field Contact info as often as necessary. To move on, click the Next button located at the top of the Excavator Information page (Fig 4). (Fig. 4) 5

6 Section III. Site Information - Step 2 of 3 Here in section III we will concentrate on the work site information. This section is used to indicate where your location request should take place and what utilities will be responding to your request. It is very important to enter your information about the sites location correctly. It will make using the street lookup section or the map, that much easier. An Example of the Site Information page is below. The Site Information page consists of several fields in which you specify the location of your locate request. The first step is to enter the County your location request is to take place in. Notice the help dialog at the bottom of the above screenshot, it prompts you for the information needed in that field where the cursor is. Place/Twp, refers to the township, city or village in which you are requesting the location request for. Place Type, refers to whether that location is a township, city or village. Before we continue, it s imperitive that you realize that the place names you choose cannot be a guess; they must be accurate according to legally incorporated boundaries. Not according to mailing addresses, post offices, and zip codes. When you choose a place, a circle is drawn on the map, and everything outside that circle is ignored. This Obviously, has dire consequences if the place you choose is wrong. Note: Some locations are tricky, usually where that location pays its taxes is the best bet. 6

7 Choosing The State, County and Place This field will always be New York (NY). It is unchangeable. Enter the county where the locating will occur, with the exception of Long Island and New York City. Generally, you will spell out the name of the county. Note: St. Lawrence county would be entered ST LAWRENCE, with no punctuation. Enter the township, CDP, city or village where the work is to be done. This is the name of the place where the locating should occur. The type of place field, is a drop down menu. Usually your location will be a Township, Village, City, or Reservation. Note: CDP s are Census Designated Places, more commonly known as Hamlets. If you leave this field blank, the computer will offer you choices at the bottom of the page after you click the Search button. Once you have entered this information for your particular location request click the search button at the bottom of the page. By clicking on the search button you are allowing the system to verify your location. In several instances towns and villages share the same name but are of a different place type. This is why it is important that the computer verify your particular location. In the cases where the name of a place exists as more than one type (the Town and Village of Manlius, for example) the use of the search button will give you an opportunity to choose the correct one in the dialog box that will show below the button. 7

8 Place Searching Whenever you click on the Search button, the state, county, place and (when we get to that section) street names are validated. Using De Witt as an example, this guide will demonstrate briefly how the search button can aid you in selecting the correct location information for your location request. Notice De Witt was entered with the spelling Dewitt. By only typing in the first few letters of the county and the first few letters of the city, township or village, the software displays the area in question in a pinkish highlight. Then below the Search, Cancel & Continue Buttons a dialog with a Blue header appears offering you choices. If you find one that works, Click the USE PLACE button. Example: Once you have clicked on the USE PLACE button, the information is inserted into the proper fields. If the address Field highlights next, the software will again offer you choices in the same spot as the example above. If appropriate, choose something from that list and again the software will correct all the information within the form. See example on the next page. 8

9 Notice above that Brittonfield was entered as a CIR. (Circle) The Street Results Dialog box let s us know that there is a Brittonfield PKWY available, not a Circle. Since that is what we are looking for, click the Use Street Button at the end of the line of text in the dialog box. Then click the Search button again. The software then fills in the text fields with the proper information and also the pinkish highlighting will go away. When the highlighting goes away, that lets us know the info entered is good and the location is on our maps. Just for instance, let s say Brittonfield Cir. is the exact name we want because it is a new addition to the neighborhood and not on our maps yet. In that case you must check the box in front of the text that says Continue even if my information does not match database or check this box to use streets that are not a 100% match. We will address new streets not on the map later in the next section of this booklet. Also I should add here that ONLY if your dig site is at a corner property or in an intersection, would you enter a street name into the Intersecting Street Field. Intersection Locates will also be covered later in this the next section of this booklet. Once you have entered your information correctly and there is no highlighting on any of the fields, click the Continue Button to proceed to step 3 of 3. 9

10 Before this manual proceeds to step 3 of 3, we will cover a bit more information regarding intersections and other types of Street Information. Moving On To Street Information Now we have reached the point where our location needs to be narrowed in. Obviously the best way to accomplish this is by using the streets that are within the town, city or village that have been selected previously. There are a couple of factors that need to be considered before we just start entering information. The first thing that needs to be established is where the work is being done. This is important because it allows you to determine what approach you will need to most effectively represent your location. For instance, if the location has a street address you would follow the instructions section titled primary street address. If you are working at an intersection you will follow instructions for working at an intersection and so on and so forth. The street information portion of section III consist of five sections. 1. Primary Street Address 2. Working at a Cross Street 3. Street Searching 4. Footprint 5. Edge of Road A. Primary Street Address The primary street address is the desired method of entering a location request. A primary street address consists of filling in anywhere from two to six fields (namely From, To, Dir Prefix, Street, Type, Dir Suffix). The starting ( From ) and ending ( To ) addresses. The starting (From) address field is simply used by entering the address number in which your location request is starting at or is taking place at. The (To) field is used when you are working with an address range. In this field you would enter the higher address number where the location will stop. If you are requesting a location for a single address leave the (To) field empty. If the request is for an address range of adjoining properties, put the lower address into the From field, and put the higher # address in the To field. If no address numbers are available, leave both fields empty. 10

11 The (Directional Prefix) field is for streets with a prefix; for example N S E W etc.. The Directional Prefix is a drop down menu which also includes a special prefix, All. The default is the All prefix. If there is no prefix the field should be left to say All. I have not found an instance to use (blank). An example of a street where the Directional Prefix field would be used is N Broadway St. The (Street) field is just what it says it is. It is the field in which you enter the street name where your location request is for. This field is for the street name usually without any of the N S E W information and always excluding Street (ST), Road (RD), Avenue (AVE) etc. No puncuation is allowed in this field, so please do not put any periods, commas or apostrophes into your street names. If your street name is O Brien, enter OBrien with no ( ). Please note that there is a standardized naming convention for routes and highways, you must use them correctly in order to have any success using i-notice. (see standardized naming section of this guide and also on the web at i-notice University). The (Type) field refers to the type of street you are requesting a facility location on. The type of street can be either a Street (ST), Road (RD), Avenue (AVE) etc. No puncuation is allowed in the field so please do not put any periods here. The type of street is also subject to specific abbreviations such as ST, AVE, BLVD, CT, RD, etc. The (Directional Suffix) field is for streets with a Suffix; for example N S E W etc. The Directional Suffix is a drop down menu which also includes a special suffix, All, Again the default is the All option which means your street will include all the possible suffixes for that particular street name. An example of a street where a Directional Suffix would be used is ERIE BLVD S. Now that we have established what each field is used for, we are ready to move on to the entry of a Primary Street Address. For this example we will be using the single address 5063 BRITTONFIELD PKWY which is in the township of De Witt and the county of Onondaga. Single Address Example: This example shows the proper entry for the location of 5063 BRITTONFIELD PKWY 11

12 Address Range Example The only change in the address range is the addition of 5079 in the To field. The entry of the second address number indicates that the locate is starting at the Address in the From field and stopping at the address in the To field. Note: If BRITTONFIELD PKWY had a Directional Prefix or a Directional Suffix those fields would have indicated such; however BRITTONFIELD PKWY does not have a Prefix or a Suffix so the fields are left (all) as indicated in the example. B. Working at an Intersection For all intents and purposes of this section we will be concentrating on the Intersecting Streets (intersection) fields basic function, to narrow in on the particular intersection you will be working at. Remember that the Intersecting Street field is used to nail down your dig site to a specific intersection. If your dig site is not at an intersection, you should not enter anything in this field. The Intersection Street method of entering a locate consists of filling in anywhere from one to four fields (namely Dir Prefix, Intersecting Street, Type, Dir Suffix). Following the entry of your Primary Street information enter your Intersecting Street information. The Intersecting Street (intersection) field is just what it says it is. It is the field where you enter the street name that intersects with the primary street. Follow all the same parameters as the Street Field previously discussed. No punctation is allowed in this field, so please do not put any periods or commas into your street names. There is no place on this line to enter any street # information. All we need here is the name of the intersecting street, it s Type and a Prefix or Suffix, if there is one. The correct entries for the intersection of JAMES ST and RIDGEWOOD DR are displayed in the example on page 13. It is important to understand that when you are using the Intersecting Street field, your location request is for the intersection or corner property and not 3 houses down from the intersection. The reason for this is that the location of that intersection will override any address range specified thus reporting your location request to the wrong member utilities. 12

13 C. Street Searching Street searching works on pretty much the same principal as place searching (Section III of this Guide Place Searching ). At this particular juncture in the process of entering your location request you have already validated your State, County, and Place. You are now ready to validate your street address or the street you are working on. In the following example this guide will illustrate the steps taken in validating a street. Using JAMES ST as our primary example. This guide has intentionally entered the street name incorrectly (see example below). 13

14 Once you have entered your information you would click on the Search buttons to verify the street name. The Street Field will highlight with a pinkish color and a list of possible choices will show up at the very bottom of your screen. Also notice after you click the search button, other choices become available, Continue & Cancel buttons. The next step would be to scroll through the list and select the correct computer generated choice. (assuming that there is a correct choice available). If the street name (and address range) is displayed, simply click on the corresponding Use Street button to plug it in (Note: there is also an E JAMES ST in the above example). Always remember to check the address range to make sure it makes sense and matches your location. On the other hand, the street name we re looking for may not appear, in which case, we ll either need to try a less-specific spelling (leave a few letters off of the end) or you can tell the computer to search in some different ways with the existing spelling. In any case, we ll choose whatever seems most appropriate for your search Best Match, Close Spelling, Adjacent Places, or Exact Match and click on the GO button to look for your particular street name. Once you have found your street AND range in the correct place, click on its Use Street button to plug it in. Please remember that there are standardized naming conventions when referring to Routes and Highways (see pg. 49 & 50). If and only If you have exhausted all possible spellings and searches, and still cannot find the appropriate street name but know the street exists, you can force the computer to use the unknown name that you ve typed in. To force the computer you would check the box: Continue even if my information does not match database or check this box to use streets that are not a 100% match. When you select this option please understand that it is even more imperative that you correctly represent the dig site on our maps using the assortment of mapping tools. Make absolutely sure that the street name, etc. is spelled exactly the way you want it to appear on the location request. 14

15 When you elect to check this box and then click the Continue button a warning message will show up in a dialog box. (See below). This message lets you know that the street that is typed in does not match our database. You will need to pick grids/polygons to correctly represent the dig site. Click OK if you want to proceeed to the map or click Cancel if you would like to return to step 2. Once you choose OK you will be taken directly to the map. The Blue area currently represents your dig site using the place (De Witt in this case) as the recognized boundary. It is your job to narrow down this dig site to correctly represent the area where you will be working in De Witt. The easiest way to find your location is to use the binocular tool from the tool menu above the map. You will use this tool to find recognized streets that surround the dig site. See Mapping section for proper use of this tool with examples. 15

16 D. Footprint & Edge of Road The Footprint is a buffer zone that will be added to the dig site you re creating. If your dig site is not exactly at the street address you ve entered in the site information section, increase this setting to a distance that will include your dig site. For example, if you ll be in a field some 500 feet North of the address you ve specified, kick up the Footprint to ¼ Mile, otherwise the computer will only look for utilities in the immediate area around the road, and not know to look where you ll (actually) be working. A much more accurate way to encompass an off-road dig site is to just manually grid the area you will be working at on the map and leave the default 200 ft Footprint stay right at 200 ft. (Most users tend to Over-Grid and do not get the desired results when enlarging the footprint. As a general rule, a 200 ft Footprint is sufficient, but always make certain that this setting exceeds the distance from the street to the farthest edge of your digsite. In most cases you can account for this additional area more precisly and efficiently by using one of the mapping tools during the mapping process. Edge of Road To the right of the Footprint there is a new box labeled, Edge of Road. What this question is asking is: is your dig site within 25 ft feet of the edge of the road or in the road? Choose one of the 3 selections and if you are unsure of the exact location, please select Unknown. See Below. A Rule to Follow... E. Extent of Excavation As a part of Dig Safely New York s never-ending mission to constantly improve the level of customer service our callers and members receive, we have begun to implement a new policy. Effective immediately, all excavation locations that are put through under i-notice to Dig Safely New York will need to adhere to the following parameters: An excavation notice shall consist of contiguous properties - within one block or within 500 ft, whichever is greater. It can extend around a corner of the block for a distance not to exceed 500 ft. Basically, what this means is all excavation locations will now have to be entered in paying special attention to the length of the dig. Remember, as long as you are working on contiguous properties, you can use whatever is greater, one block or 500 ft. However, if you are working at 4 houses on a street of 20 houses, and they each stand apart from the others, that will be 4 separate tickets. Coming up next are a few other examples that will show how this new policy would affect a given dig location. 16

17 A) If you ll notice in this example of NY RT 298, between Fly Rd and Brittonfield Pkwy, the dig location is set for one block, or 1,091 ft in this case. This is a legitimate location request. Had the location been contiguous properties from Fly Rd to I 481 (the interstate on the right side of the map), two location requests would have been entered, this one and one for btwn Brittonfield Pkwy and I 481. B) On this example, NY RT 298 is shown in the town of Cicero between E Taft Rd and Areopagitica Ave (top of the map screen). This location stretches for 2.10 miles, however can all be on one location request because it is one block between the crossroads. C) This example, of Washington Ave. btwn Edgewood Ave. and Fairlawn Ave. in the city of Albany, shows that you don t have to grid street to street if it is less than 500 ft. This map out is 500 ft btwn the 2 cross roads, yet there are 4 city blocks within the cross roads that were entered. D) This example shows work on Abbott Rd, in the town of Orchard Park, btwn Sheldon Rd and Southwestern Blvd. The work is being done on Abbott Rd, both sides for the length of the road btwn the cross roads and 420 ft west of Southwestern Blvd on Abbott Rd. This is allowed on one ticket under the new rules. 17

18 E) This final example shows a location that can no longer be entered. This shows I 90 (the thru-way) being mapped out from exit 37 to exit 38. Under our new policy, you would have to enter this using cross roads (any road that is going under or over I 90) to break up the location. This example would be 3 separate locations. You can no longer go from exit to exit. Please use one block or 500 ft; whichever is greater. Section IV. Additional Information - Step 3 of 3 This section of the guide maps out the additional information portion of a location request using the i-notice process. Now the site information section has been completed. The additional information page allows you to specify any further information that will help locators find the location. It also gives you a chance to include any details/instructions that may be relevant to the location of your digsite. 18 This new policy will assist both excavators and member utilities, alike. For the excavators, it will be more efficient, in that it will allow utilities to clear excavation sites faster since the locations will be more accurate than before. It also sets a steady format, which previously was not in place that will establish how much location can be allowed on one ticket. This is a feature that will be of assistance to the utilities. Remember to use this new format when entering your location requests into the i-notice system. There are six distinct sections located within the additional information page. It is a good idea to follow the order of this guide while at the additional information page because it will help you make corrections at the proper place and time.

19 Below is a screenshot of Step 3 of 3. It is filled out with the information we will be using in the next few topics. Also notice at the bottom of the page that Blue Highlighted line is still there. That displays a helper text that tells what information belongs in each field. The six distinct sections of the additional information page will be discussed in detail so you can complete your location request without error. 1) The very top of the page tells us some general information about the request that is being created. This area displays information on how the location is notified, in this case it is by Intersection, the agent who is creating the location request (DEBall) and the location requests status (suspend). Suspend means, as a Basic User, your locate requests go into a suspend file and are checked for accuracy. When you enter approx tickets correctly, you will recieve your wings and your tkts will go directly to the utliities. That field will then say Completed. 19

20 2) The next section is the excavation information section. It displays your company information (always check this section for accuracy). 3) The site information section displays the place and streets that have previously been entered in the site information page. This section also gives the user the ability to refine the dig site by viewing the map or by going back to the site information page by using the edit site information option. These options are discussed in further detail in the verifying information section of this guide. 4) The work information section is used to specify when and what type of work you will be doing. 5) The Additional Site Information section allows for some general details about the location that is to be located. This section will also be discussed further in the additional site information section contained in Section IV. 6) The final section is the comments section. This area allows you to include any detail / special instruction that didn t belong anywhere else. It is also your direct link to the actual Locator who will be marking this site out. Location Request Status At the very top of the additional information page you will notice two items of general interest, and one very useful Status control. 20 The first item of interest is the type of lookup ( Notify by ) that the computer was able to use, based on the quality of the information given in the site info page. Generally, this will be either Street, Address, or Intersection. In some cases a lookup type will be Place. This means that all the utilities in the city, town, village or county will be notified of your dig site. You are not allowed to do a place notify. The second item of interest is your username ( Agent ). Some users may be allowed to proxy for other contractors; exactly the way our staff does for you when you call. This item identifies the user who created the location request. The Status box is of great use and importance. It allows you to complete and send a request immediately, or stuff it onto a shelf (Suspend) to review and finish later. Initially, all requests created by new users are forced into a suspended state. This allows our experienced call center personnel the ability to review the request for quality before sending it on to the utilities. Once you have demonstrated that you have the knowledge to create quality tickets you ll be given the ability as an advanced user to complete your own location requests or, tag them as suspended for finishing later. During your time as a basic user you will be strictly in the Suspend status as illustrated in the example above. Suspend simply means that the ticket will not be released until Dig Safely New York reviews it. Once you have reached advanced user status you will be given access to a special status bar, located at the very top of the Additional Info page where you can adjust the status of your location request from Suspend to Completed.

21 Verifying Excavator Information The excavator information section allows you to review your company information. The information in the Name, Company, Phone, and Address information should always be correct due to the fact that your username and password are for you and you alone. If you wish to change any of this information you would need to contact Dig Safely New York administrative office to do so. If you have changes, it is important to keep this current so you can be contacted if any questions arise concerning your particular location request. You can change the Alternative Contacts without calling by clicking the edit button at the top of this section. Verifying Site Information The site info section displays the place, street(s), and safety parameter that was chosen while on the site info page. A L W A Y S c h e c k t h e n a m e a n d type of the place that has been selected. If you discover a problem with these selections, you can correct them by clicking on the Edit button, which will return you to the site info page. Do not use the back button of your browser. There is also an option here for viewing the map. The map is often useful for refining the exact location of your location request, especially when dealing with address ranges, unknown streets, or rural areas without any streets at all. You always need to view the map, just to make sure that the location of the dig site makes sense and to make any adjustments that would make the map more accurate. Entering Site Information The site information section allows space for some general details about the location request. Specifically the two perpendicular cross streets to the actual street the work is being done on. (if available) And secondly specifics about where on the property you need the underground lines marked. 21

22 The Near Street Field The first space available in this section is Near Street. This field is used to provide the names of the 2 perpendicular cross streets your site is between. They act as points of reference that help locators find your dig area. They also help us verify that the map is correctly gridded. When filled out prior to viewing the map, they highlight with pinkish color slashes to aid you in zooming in to your dig site when you get to the map. Do not put descriptive text before the street names or they will not highlight. For example, the info should be entered as: Main St & 2nd St. If your street is a circle that starts and ends on the same street, just enter the name of that one street or road. If your street location is a dead end, just enter the one road your street is off from. The Locate Where Field The *Locate Where field consists of two fields that allow you to give specific instructions about the area to be located. You can either choose from a canned list (locate where drop down menu), and or, type in your own instructions. You would also use this area to include any lot numbers, pole numbers, mile markers, subdivision names, or to describe the full extent of your work site, etc., anything that a locator would need to know to correctly complete your location request. It is also recommended that you mark the digsite out in white to eliminate confusion as to exactly where you will be digging on the property. Our excavation will be taking place at the intersection of Brittonfield PKWY & NY RT 298, so we entered intersection in the Near Streets field. If it were to take place in the middle of the block, we would enter the 2 perpendicular Cross Streets. If we did not know the name of 2 cross streets, then a distance and direction from the closest intersecting street would also work fine. Just make sure your map reflects this description. In the *Locate Where field, we have indicated that the work will involve the Entire Intersection. Also as indicated in the text box below, that we want 50 ft East & West of the intersection located. Brief Precise info works best here. The (*) before Locate Where is letting you know there MUST be an entry selected from the drop-down menu or text entered into the text box. You may also utilize both of these fields if needed. 22

23 Entering Work Information The work information section allows us to detail what we ll be doing, and when we ll be doing it. The Start Date and Time of your excavation will always default to the two full working day minimum. You can set the starting date and time to whatever is correct, provided that it satisfies the two to ten day requirement (see two day requirement calandar below). The *Work For field is used to indicate who you are performing the excavation for, either a company s name, person s name, or yourself is required. The *Blasting field should be answered YES if any type of explosives might be used during this excavation otherwise select NO blasting. The *Work Type field allows you to specify what type of work you ll be doing. You can either pick from a canned list of common jobs, or you can type a brief description into the text box below the Work Type field. You may use both if needed. Keep it brief in this field, more than 80 characters gives you an error msg. The *Means of Excavation field is used to indicate what type of equipment you ll be performing the excavation with (a backhoe, cable plow, air knife, whatever). Entering Comments The comments box is used for any other details / special instructions that didn t belong anywhere else, with the exception of work type and location information. If you choose to do test tickets, this is a great place to state that This is a Test Ticket. 23

24 Viewing the map has a couple of basic requirements that must be met. The map only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4 or newer on a Microsoft Windows Operating System with signed ActiveX controls allowed to run. It doesn t work with Netscape. It doesn t work with Linux. It doesn t work on a Mac., unless you are running Win9x under SoftWin or VPC, etc. If you are experiencing difficulties getting the map to work, you are welcome to look at our Map FAQ, section of our website where the most common oversights have long ago been addressed. You might also find some general answers in the section Browser FAQ. i-notice University also has many Tips & Tricks posted. Getting Started Viewing The Map The mapplet software allows you to view where the computer thinks your excavation is going to take place, and fine-tune the area that was selected as a result of that location. What the map displays as the dig site is the determining factor in what utilities will be notified. The first time you click View Map button, your web browser will hopefully ask if you want to download two ActiveX controls, which are small applets that know how to display maps. This process will not start as soon as you click the button. Give it time... the dialog boxes will show up just as fast as YOUR connection speed allows. 24

25 When it asks you, you ll want to say yes to both questions, otherwise you won t be able to view the maps correctly. Downloading these controls may take a few minutes. Your browser must be allowed to let these ActiveX programs run; if the page loads but doesn t display a map, make sure your Internet Security is set to Medium. To see how to change you internet security please see web browser setup facts at If you see a square little box with a red X in it, that indicates you do not have the permissions set to download and install this software on your computer. Check with your Systems Administrator to have this situation rectified. You will need to perform this task periodically as we update the software. Once you have sucessfully downloaded these controls, the map will appear, and the area that your location request is for will be displayed. Should the map break apart when you use your scroll bar, that will tell you your connection isn t fast enough for the map to be redrawn by your monitor. Another reason why we suggest high speed connections vs. dial-up. The map consists of four distinct areas, each with a specific function. Note that some options will not be available, depending on if you are using the map to edit and modify a dig site during Irth Notice Creation, or if you are simply using the map to view a completed location request in Notice Manager. 25

26 Layer Controls The first area this guide will discuss is the frame along the left hand side of the map. This area contains the Layer Controls which allows you to choose how the map is displayed, what features will or will not be visible. Maps typically have a lot more detail than we care to look at, unless we re zoomed in really close. This map places each set of details into a layer, and allows you to see them (by checking their box), or hide them (by clearing their box) as desired. The map also color-codes the features in each layer for example, Interstates will appear as orange lines, whereas Major Roads will be white, and your dig site will be a blue crosshatch pattern. See example below. The Map Toolbar This portion of the map will become your biggest asset when manually gridding your specific location. For that reason, it is important to familiarize yourself with each of the tools basic functions. The toolbar is displayed below. This portion of the guide will look at each tool individually to discuss its basic function. To gain access to a specific tool simply click on the icon on the toolbar and it s ready to use. To stop using a tool, simply right click on the map and it will go away. The tools to add your selection to the map (yellow plus sign with checkbox) and save changes (3 1/2 floppy disk icon) are greyed out until you manually grid a location. Only after manually gidding will those tools become active and ready to use. 26

27 Shortcut: Some of these tools are available by right clicking on the map, then choosing them from the menu that appears. See example at left. The tools in the toolbar are meant for specifi c purposes when working with the map. Zoom In - clicking on the map while this tool is selected will zoom in on that spot. Right-Click (the OTHER mouse button) to make this tool go away when you re done with it. Zoom Out - clicking on the map while this tool is selected will zoom out from that spot. Right-Click (the OTHER mouse button) to make this tool go away when you re done with it. Pan - Use this tool to slide the map around to look at other places. Click (and hold) on the map, and move the mouse, the map moves with it until you let go of the button. Right-Click (the OTHER mouse button) to make this tool go away when you re done with it. Full Extent - Clicking on this will zoom out to reveal the whole state. Stop - Clicking on this tool will stop your zoom or whatever from a timely upload of the map. Info - Clicking on an object / feature with this tool selected will reveal more info about it. Right-Click (the OTHER mouse button) to make this tool go away when you re done with it. Find - Use this to quickly snap the map to a specific county, place, quad, etc. Enter the name of the thing you re looking for, and if it finds it, you re there. Ruler - Use this tool to measure distances. Click on the map to drop waypoints, it tells you how far apart they are. Right-Click (the OTHER mouse button) to stop measuring. Push Pin - This tool is used as a simple reference mark on the map. If your project covers a long distance, use of the push pin will help you find the start and stop points very easily. Grid Picker - Allows you to highlight grids, and add them as polygonal regions. Grids and polygons can both be used with a polygon lookup type. 27

28 Arbitrary Region Tool - Allows you to draw a closed area of any shape, simply click on the map where you d like to drop the corners. Double-click when you add the last corner to close the region. Regions created by this tool are not buffered; you must account for that when you create the shape. Rectangle Tool - Allows you to quickly draw a closed rectangular region in the area of your digsite. Click on the map at the top-left position of the area you wish to add, then drag to the lower right. Regions created by this tool are not buffered; you must account for that when you create the shape. Circle Tool - Allows you to quickly draw a circle of a given radius in your digsite area. Click where the center of the circle should be, and drag until the desired radius is reached. Regions created by this tool are not buffered; you must account for that when you create the shape. Line Segment Tool - This tool draws 400ft buffered line segments (800 feet wide, total). Allows you to quickly draw buffered lines to your service area. Simply click where you wish to start the line; each click after that will drop a buffered line segment to the position you ve clicked on. When finished, double-click to drop the final segment point. Useful for tracing streets, corridors, etc. Bullseye Tool - This tool draws 400ft radius circles. Allows you to quickly draw buffered bullseyes to your digsite area. Simply click where you wish to place them. Useful for nailing intersections or other point based facilities. Polygon Pick Tool - allows you to select and work with non-added polygons that you ve just drawn. Use with the Polygon Eraser, below. Polygon Eraser - allows you to delete polygons that have been selected by the Polygon Picker. Useful if you got a little crazy with one of the other polygon tools, and wish to not add a couple of the polygons you ve just drawn. Adder Tool - Once you ve drawn a few polygons, click this tool to ADD them to your PENDING ADDITIONS layer. Then go back and draw some more. Remover - Once you ve drawn a few polygons, this tool will remove the currently drawn polygons from your service area. Regions to be removed are stored in your PENDING DELETIONS layer. Save Changes - Once you re done with your selections, click this to save what you ve done. If you leave the map without clicking this, your edits are gone. Yes, you can click this every few minutes. Discard Changes - If you ve totally botched what you re doing, click this to dump any changes you ve made so far. The map will revert to what it looked like since you last SAVED CHANGES. Map Help - Just what s implied. Help with the map and error messages. 28

29 Map Display Area The Map Display Area is pretty much where most of the action is going to take place. Here is where you can examine the existing dig site that is being used to notify the utilities, and make changes as needed using the Map Toolbar, or Right-Click Menu shortcuts. NOTE: just a reminder... avoid using the address # s given by the map. Everyday in NYS some city town or village re-numbers a street. House numbers change. That is why we expect you to grid between 2 existing Cross Streets. Map Mis-Conception Do Not look at the map with the idea it is for driving directions. It is not for that purpose at all. The locators will never see the map that you grid. Under the map that you see is another map. On the Map below is where the utilities have gridded out their areas where their underground lines are. When you grid an area on the top map layer, your grid actually touches the the map below... the one that you do not see. When this happens, the software generates a list of all the utilities where your map has touched the utilities mapped out areas. That is how they know where you are digging. Do Not think that if the streets aren t exactly where they should be that the locators will never find where you are working. Remember, the Locators will not see the map. BE Aware that the Utilities have gridded on the same map you are looking at here, NOT a JIMAPCO Map or any other Travel Guide! The Map Status Bar The Map Status Bar keeps the user informed of what s going on while working with the map. If we wish, we can configure the status bar to show us different / additional information, such as longitude, lattitude, etc. 29

30 Selecting Your Dig Site Now that this guide has discussed the various portions of the map page it is time to put its toolbar and displays to good use. There are several ways in which a particular dig site can be represented accurately enough to insure the proper member utilities will be notified. The objective of this guide is to illustrate the best possible method of gridding to use in specific types of locations as well as when and why one specific tool should be used over another. To demonstrate the several possibilities this guide will use examples to illustrate the use of various tools. To get started you will need to consider the location of your particular proposed excavation. Is it between two streets, at an Intersection or in the field off the road? Such factors will need to be determined in order to represent your location accurately. In our first example we will be using 3650 JAMES ST in the Township of DE WITT. For this location request we are going to be digging in front of residence # 3650 which we know is between LEO AVE and RIDGEWOOD DR. With that information considered this guide will demonstrate the best way to represent that particular location. From the site Information that you have entered and verified already the computer has generated a dig site location based on that information (see example at left). The location is represented by the blue crosshatched area that is running a particular length of James St. and is what the computer will use when it figures out which member facility owners will receive your location request. Seeing how we already know that this location is between two particular streets (LEO AVE, and RIDGEWOOD DR. Highlighted with the pinkish slashes) we can use that information to better represent the area our location request is for. The use of cross streets is very important to narrow down the proposed dig site when you do not have an address range. All of the tools can be used to help you select your own dig site, if needed. Now, because I created this particular location request, I just happen to know that my excavation doesn t involve the entire length of selected road, in fact, I m just going to be digging out a tree stump on the South side of 3650 James St, So I don t want to deal with any facility owners who might not be involved with my particular location request. I only want to deal with facility owners who have something near my dig site. Likewise, the locating crews don t really care about excavations that aren t near their facilities. This looks like a perfect opportunity to narrow in on our location using the various tools and information I have available. 30

31 It should be pointed out now, before we go any further, that we are not picking our own dig site because we need to make our dig site smaller. We re picking our own dig site because we wish to make the dig site more accurate. In this instance we know the 2 cross streets we are working between, the computer generated map goes quite beyond Leo Ave. & Ridgewood Dr. Our site now actually touches Thompson Rd. Chances are that is a main corridor for Fiber Optic and other communication lines. If our grid touches that road... our digsite will notify utilities that are along Thompson Rd. Therefore we want to narrow it down to only between Leo Ave. & Ridgewood Dr. Using The Line Segment Tool With this information considered, this guide will grid the location using the line segment tool (see example below). The line segment tool adds a 200 ft. buffer or safety area on both sides of your selection (400 ft. total) to insure that the correct utilities will be notified. We have chosen the line segment tool here because we know the exact streets that this particular location falls between. The first step in this type of gridding is to find your location. Looking closer at our particular location we want to be sure that the location area is included in the computers crosshatch area. In some instances the area the computer automatically grids is perfect in representing your location request; however in some instances it is not big enough or it can be made more accurate. In this instance we will make the location more accurate by using the line segment tool. The first thing that needs to be considered is where the location is. Using the pick tool or your basic pointer (exampled at left) we will verify the streets that we know our dig site is between. This is simply done by placing the pointer on the various streets on the map. The pick tool is on LEO AVE thus the location of the first street that our location falls between has been identified. That street is also under the pinkish highlighted slashes. Cross Streets will highlight if they are entered into the Near Street information box on step 3 of 3 prior to viewing the map. Note: the display of LEO AVE in the display box. It also gives an address range which you should not go by. 31

32 Move the pick tool to find the location of the other between street. Once RIDGE- WOOD AVE has been identified, we will proceed in the manual selection process of our dig site. Again, if you ve put Ridgewood into the Near Street Field on step 3 of 3, it will be highlighted with the pinkish slashes. Now that both between streets have been identified this guide will illustrate the steps used to select a between street location area using the line segment tool. 1) Select the line segment tool from the tool bar (just click on the icon). 2) (when you have the line tool selected the mouse icon will look like the example at the left) Place the Plus (+) sign of the tool on one of the Cross Street intersections and left click once. (Do not hold the mouse button down and drag when moving.) 3) Then move your mouse so the (+) of the line tool is located at the second intersection of your between street and double click to close out the line. Note: if the road happens to have curves and bends... just left click once everytime you need to change directions to follow the contour and an anchor point will autoimatically be added to the line. Thus allowing you to grid around curves. Note: the line that you have created has now turned into a dotted oval surrounding the location. The bold line along JAMES ST represents the line that was drawn while using the line segment tool. Upon double clicking... the area grew to look like the surrounding oval. This happened because we have a 200 ft. buffer selected for safety reasons (this is a good thing). By looking at the selected area we have added area and subtracted area to our proposed excavation site. By doing so the location is more accurate. Note: If you make a mistake using the Line Segment tool this is the place where you would fix it by selecting the Polygon Eraser tool. Once you have selected the tool, a yes or no option will appear. If you want to erase the polygon select yes, if not select no. 32

33 4) Click on the adder tool. Once you have clicked on the Adder tool your dig site area is added and transformed into a green grid area as in the example to the right. 5) The next step in mapping this location is to click on the save icon located on the toolbar. This will save your dig site information and replace the computer generated site. Once this has been completed the green grid area will turn into the blue crosshatch and the previous blue markings of the computers location will disappear. See example below. 6) Finally after saving your selection, click the Back button, located above the map toolbar. Do not click the Back Button on your Browser... that will take you back to the Computer Generated Map and all of the Gridding will have to be re-done. Using The Arbitrary Region Tool Using the same site information (3650 JAMES ST, DE WITT, ONONADAGA) this guide will show an example of when and why different circumstances call for different types of mapping. In this case the location site information is the same, but the type of work we are doing is different. For this particular location we need markings for a 500 ft. long trench. The trench will start at the edge of the street at the address and proceed South for 500 ft. We still know that the location is between the same two cross streets, but as this guide will demonstrate, the line segment tool would not be a reliable tool for this type of location request. 33

34 For this location we will use the arbitrary region tool. The site information is the same so it will create the same blue crosshatch that the computer displayed in the previous example. Just by looking at the dig site that the computer has generated you can see that the blue crosshatch area does not cover the 500 ft. south, that the dig will cover. This is the reason we must grid the location manually. The first thing that must be assessed is where the location starts and ends. 1) We know the location is between two streets in this instance we have found RIDGEWOOD DR by placing the Pick tool on the street. 2) Move the pick tool to find the second between street. In this instance we have located it, LEO AVE. Now we have found the two streets that our location is between. For this location we still need to make sure that our dig site covers the 500 ft. South that we plan to dig. 34

35 To make sure that the dig site contains 500 ft. south we will need to see how much area on the map is represented by 500ft. To get the distance you will need to select the Ruler tool from the tool bar. 3) Select the Ruler tool. Once you have selected the ruler tool your mouse will look like the example to the left. 4) Click in the section of road that the location will be starting at. In this instance it is between LEO AVE and RIDGEWOOD DR on JAMES ST. By clicking on the location you have set one end of the ruler. By moving the mouse you can see how far you are from the start point (hence ruler). In the example to the left you will see that the ruler is at a distance of 517 feet from the start point. This is the amount of area that needs to be included in the gridded dig site area when we have completed the process of manually gridding this location. By double clicking at the second point of your measurement the ruler tool will drop two or more (depending on the number of points you set) reference blocks that you can use during manual gridding. See example at left. If you wish to get rid of the ruler marks, just right click on the map and select Clear Measure Distance. It s really apparent now that the computer generated dig site area is certainly not going to encompass what the computer gridded out. This is the reason we need to manually grid this location. Now that the distance for our location request has been established we will need to create a dig site on our map that will include the 500ft south of James St. that our dig is going to go. 5) Select the Arbitrary Region Tool from the tool bar. This tool is the tool of choice here because it will allow for the best representation of our dig site. Once you have selected the Arbitrary Region Tool your mouse will look like the example at the left. Now that the Arbitrary Region tool is selected you will need to put it to use. 6) Select an area using the arbitrary region tool by clicking at a starting point and moving your mouse to various points and clicking to add anchor points so that your entire dig site will be surrounded. (see example at left). 35

36 Note: The Arbitrary Region tool does not include a buffer so make sure you include enough extra area to compensate for the lack of a buffer. 7) Once you have surrounded the area you are requesting a locate for, you simply double click and the area becomes closed. If this area is correct you will simply move on to the next step if for some reason you didn t get the entire area you wanted use the eraser tool. If you choose to erase the arbitrary region, you can select the eraser tool from the toolbar and click yes to confirm the erase. From there you would simply start your Arbitrary region over again. 8) If the region is correct click on the adder tool. Once you have clicked the adder tool your dig site area changes into a green gridded area. This means you have successfully added your region. 9) After your region has been added you will need to save it by clicking on the save icon located in the tool bar. Being that this booklet is in Black & White, it s not too noticeable here, but this step will turn the digsite from the Green Crosshatch to a Blue Crosshatch color. Upon clicking the save icon your dig site will change to a blue crosshatch area. This indicates that the location has been successfully saved. 10) The final step in mapping this location is to is check and make sure that the location area is accurate by double checking the distance and landmarks (between streets). Once everything has been checked, click on the BACK button located ABOVE THE MAP TOOLBAR (Not the Back Button on your Browser). 36

37 Using The Circle Tool For the purpose of demonstrating the circle tool this guide will stay consistent with the area that we have been working with in the previous examples. In this instance however, we will be working at the intersection of JAMES ST and RIDGEWOOD DR. Usually the computer picks up an intersection quite well. In this particular case we will be working in a 300 ft. radius of the intersection. Upon entering the map you see the location as represented by the computer in the blue-hatch marking. We know the dig site on the map does not include the 300 ft. radius that this dig site requires because the buffer the computer uses is only 200 ft. With that considered this is a perfect opportunity to use the circle tool. In the example to the left the computer has displayed the intersection with the 200 ft. buffer. This obviously won t cover the entire 300 ft. dig site so this is a good place to start the process of manually gridding the intersection using the circle tool. 1) Select the circle tool from the toolbar located at the top of the map display. Once the circle tool has been selected the mouse display will appear on the map like the example to the left. 2) Place the arrow point of the mouse display at the exact point of the intersection. Click the mouse and drag out until the radius display reads the desired distance. In this example the radius is at 400 ft. We want to add a buffer of our own to make sure our dig site is accurate. For that reason we exceeded the 300 ft. of our actual dig site. 3) Upon reaching the desired radius release the mouse button. Once the mouse has been released your location will appear at the desired radius in a dotted proposed dig site area (See example). If this area is correct you will simply move on to the next step. If for some reason you didn t get the entire area you wanted, use the eraser tool. 37

38 If you chose to erase the area created by the circle tool you simply select the eraser tool from the tool and click yes to confirm the erase. From there you would simply start your circle region over again. 4) If the region is correct click on the adder tool. Once you have clicked on the adder tool the dig site will change into a green grid area. This means you have successfully added your region. 5) After your region has been added, you will need to save it. Click the save icon located in the tool bar. Upon clicking the save icon the dig site will change to a blue crosshatch area. This indicates that the location has been successfully saved. The final step in mapping this location is to make sure the location area is accurate by double-checking the distance and landmarks. Once everything has been checked, click on the save button located above the map tool bar. The Rectangle Tool Using the rectange tool requires the same steps as the circle tool, except it places a rectangle on the map instead of a circle (hence rectangle) To avoid being redundant we will only demonstrate the rectangle tool briefly. To start using the rectangle tool you will need to select it from the tool bar. Once you have selected it your mouse icon will change to an arrow with a rectangle beside it (example at left). In the example at the left an entire section of James Street is represented as our dig site. This example will demonstrate the rectangle tool to make this location request more accurate thus notifying the proper effected utilities. 38

39 To select an area using the rectangle tool start at one corner of the area you want included. Click and drag across to the opposite corner this will put a boarder around the area you are going to use as your dig site. Once the area is enclosed click on the mouse and your area will become the dotted area that is ready to be added. If the area is good select the add tool and then the save icon from the toolbar. Once that is completed click on the save button at the top of the map display to continue on with the rest of the i-notice process. Note: upon clicking the save tool your dig site will change to the blue cross hatch area (example at left). Complete the mapping process by clicking on the save button at the top of the map page. The Bulls-eye Tool This tool requires the same process as the other tools. Its main function is for placing a bull s-eye with a 400 ft. buffer at any spot you wish in the map so long as the tool is selected. It is a fast easy way to mark an intersection that need a 400 ft. radius. Once the Bulls-eye tool is selected the mouse display will look like the example at left. Upon selecting the bulls-eye tool you need to identify the intersection or location of where you want to place the bulls-eye. In the example at left we are going to drop the bulls-eye at the cross section of JAMES ST and RIDGEWOOD DR. 39

40 In this example the Bulls-eye tool has been dropped and is now ready to be added and saved as the designated dig site. Remember the bulls-eye tool only covers a radius of 400 ft. Clicking the Adder Tool & the The Save Changes icon will yeild the same results as previously described. The site will highlight with a green grid & then with a blue cross hatch respectively. Utilizing The Binocular Tool The Binocular Tool provides i-notice users with an easy way to find and/or identify street locations that are missing or that are too new to be found on our latest maps. Finding the location of missing streets using the Binocular tool is very important because the area you are requesting a location for needs to be represented accurately. Thus insuring proper notification of all affected member facility operators. In the example that follows we will demonstrate the use of the Binocular tool to properly grid the location of a street that is missing from our maps. We know this street (NEW PATH) exists, and the streets it exists between are known. In the preceding example we entered the County and Town that our location request is in. In the street field we entered NEW PATH which is the street that we are requesting the location on. Upon entering the street (spelled correctly) we will click the search button to see if the computer recognizes the street. Upon clicking the search button, The street appears highlighted in a pink color. This means that the street was not recognized. Usually a list of closely matching street names will be displayed below to make sure your street is not spelled incorrectly or is located in some other town. In the example, NEW ST is listed and NEW PATH is not listed. We know it exists. This would mean that we will need to identify the streets location based on the information that does exist on the map. 40

41 To move on to the map and identify the location of your street you will need to check the box infront of the Continue even if my information does not match database or check this box to use streets that are not a 100% match. Clicking on this will use the spelling of the street you have entered in the street field. Check the box and click the Continue Button. Once you have clicked the NEXT button a warning screen will come up to confirm that you want to go to the map. You will need to click yes to move on to step 3 of 3 and the map. Clicking cancel will take you back to the site information screen. In our example we have chosen yes, to move on to the map. 41

42 At the map the computer represents our dig site as the entire Town of Cicero (PLACE) because it cannot find the street that we are doing the work on. This place notification is precisely why we need to narrow in on our location to better represent our dig site. Using the binocular tool will assist us in efficiently narrowing in on our location. PLACE notification means that every member facility operator will be notified in the entire place, as opposed to only the Members whose buried facilities are affected by your pending excavation. This type of locate is not allowed in i-notice and you will need to correct it before you can enter this ticket. Select the Binocular tool from the menu. Upon doing so a search screen will appear which you can use to find streets that are near the street you are looking for (see example below). Knowing that the unfound street of NEW PATH is located off Filisto LN between LYDIA LN & DAWNS RDG. we ll enter one of those names into the street field of the Search window. LYDIA seems like a good choice. After doing so click the Search Button to find recognized street names. You will notice that LYDIA LN was recognized because it is listed in the street search results field. Using LYDIA LN as a reference we will find the location of our street. 42

43 Lastly, click Select and then ADD TO MAP to use LYDIA LN as a reference mark on the map. In the map below LYDIA LN. is highlighted in a green color. Knowing that NEW PATH is off of FILISTO and between LYDIA & DAWNS RDG, we can use street boundaries that are available on the map to manually grid a section on the map that will represent the location of the missing street. A manually gridded area will represent the dig site much more accurately than the PLACE notification the computer selected. Now we can use the Zoom Tool to get a close up view of the area. We can now identify FILISTO and DAWNS RDG to the south. Another method would be to use the Pick Tool and just point to the streets around the highlighted area to find out what they are. 43

44 Once all identifiable boundaries have been found we will need to use one of the mapping tools to represent our proposed dig site. In this particular example we have chosen to represent the dig site using the Oval Tool. Using the streets FILISTO LN, LYDIA LN & DAWNS RDG, as guides we drag out a circle in which NEW PATH would exist if the map was current enough to represent it. Once the area has been enclosed to accuratly represent the dig site we will need to add the dig site by clicking the add button located in the map toolbar. If the gridded area is accurate in representing the missing street, click on the save button in the toolbar. Finally click on the Back Button above the mapping tool bar and move on to the final stage of notice creation. 44

45 Notes Address ranges cannot be trusted, especially in non-metro areas. In general, you will manually polygon over the dig site suggested by the computer. If you know that the dig site lies on a road between two intersecting streets, you should just polygon the entire street between those two cross streets. However, do NOT rely on the map to tell you which streets an address lies between. Some of the address ranges are completely wrong. Be especially wary of using address ranges with State and US Routes. These routes lie on top of streets that have addresses, but the routes themselves do not. The mapping data used by the computer erroneously does contain address ranges on certain routes, however using these ranges can yield unpredictable and grossly incorrect results. In short, do NOT trust the address ranges that are used by the computer. Know the streets that your location is between and polygon them to insure proper representation of your dig site. 45

46 Finishing The i-notice We will now be continuing from page 23 where we left off to go to the map and the mapping tools. If all the information looks good click on the create notice button to finish making this request. After clicking the Create Notice Button. you will be taken to a Notice Confirmation Page which will display all info pertaining to this locate request. The Confirmation Page will give you one final look at your ticket and a chance to fix anything you may have missed. Remember to use the EDIT buttons provided and not your Browsers Back Button to return to the individual fields to make corrections. 46

47 Final Confirmation The final notice creation confirmation page allows you to make one last check of what s going to be submitted as your location request. From this view, you have the option of submitting your request if all is well, editing your request if you see something is amiss, or you can cancel this whole process and start over. To return to any of the previous sections to correct problems you may have found, simply click on the edit button next to the corresponding section that needs a correction. To abort this request and do something else, click on the cancel button. To complete this request and send it out to the member utilities, click on the submit notice button. Affected Service Areas Once you have submitted the location request, you will be given a ticket number, shown the resulting location request, and told of which Dig Safely New York member utilities will be sent this location request. In addition, this page is somewhat printer friendly, so you can create a hardcopy of your location request. At this point their are several options. Another location request can be started; you can return to the main irth internet options menu to possibly go to Notice Manager or get the status of a previous locate. (Getting the status of a request is not operable at the time of this printing). 47

48 This page also gives you the infamous ticket number for this location request. SAVE THIS! Below is what the completed location request looks like, as the utilities will see it. In addition, you ll be shown the list of Dig Safely New York member utilities that will receive a copy of this location request. As usual, non-member utilities must be contacted separately, by you directly. 48

49 Standardized Street Naming Conventions New York State has exactly five types of roadways. For each type of roadway Dig Safely New York has a standardized naming convention in which the specified roadway will be recognized. 1). Interstate Route (Example I 81, I 490, Etc.) In the event you are working on an Interstate you must enter that Interstate name in the proper form to insure the correct road segment will be selected. Correct entry of an Interstate: I xx 2). US Route (Example US RT 20, US RT 11, Etc.) Correct entry of a US Route: US RT xx 3). State Route (Example NY RT 92, NY RT 60, Etc.) State Routes are owned and operated by the State of New York. Correct entry of a New York Route: NY RT xx All New York Routes must be entered in the correct format. Abbreviations such as State Route (SR) and State Highway (SH) will NEVER be found, since these are all State Routes. 4). County Route (Example CO RT 837, CO RT 14, Etc.) Correct entry of a County Route: CO RT xx Abbreviations such County Route (CR) and County Highway (CH) will not be found. 5). Any Road/ Street that is not characterized by 1-4 These roads are not Routes and their names should be entered without abbreviations. Note: Highway Exits, On-Ramps and Off-Ramps should be entered as an intersection between that Highway and the road the ramp connects to. Failing to strictly obey the above naming conventions will cause streets or roads to not be found on the map, which will result in (potentially massive) overnotification of member utilities. Discovered user accounts that are causing excessive over-notification will be warned once, and then revoked. Key: xx represents the Route or Interstate number of the road segment you are using. 49

50 50 Some Accepted Abbreviations

51 Section V. Notice Manager Notice Manager can be used to view and filter notices created by your username. Notices can be filtered and searched by date, ticket number, excavator and status. This Reference Guide will walk you through the basic functions included in the Notice Manager section of i-notice. To get started using Notice Manager simply select the Notice Manager option from the Irth Internet Options page instead of Notice Creation. You can select the Notice Manager option from two locations. You can either click the Notice Manager link from the menu portion of the page display or by clicking on the construction guy icon located beside Notice Manager in the description portion of the page display (see page display above for location). Once you have chosen Notice Manager, you will enter a new page display. This page is broken up into two major display areas. The first or top area is called Notice Manager Search Options (see example below). Notice Manager will open as depicted above. By clicking the lower button Get Notice List, the manager will open a list of notices created today, and will be limited to a list of 100 items or all items created in the past 7 days. Permissions will coming soon for a location request to be edited or resend a ticket within Notice Manager. 51

52 Notice Manager can be used primarily as a filter to sort notices that you have created. This search tool has a couple of limitations, it only allows you to search in 7 day increments and it will only display 100 entries. Aside from these limitations, using the search tool is pretty straight forward. The easiest method of finding any location request is to use the ticket ID number to find a particular location request. Ticket ID numbers need to be entered correctly for the search to work. Ticket ID numbers need to be entered exactly as displayed on the ticket you are looking for. An example of a correct entry for a ticket ID number would be Be sure to include all dashes in the ticket Id number. Note: the first 5 digits are the creation date of the ticket. (Oct. 1, 2004) Notice Manager also allows you to sort by Excavator, Work Type, County, Place, Street and Status. These types of search criterias will help you to find a notice when you may not have the ticket ID number handy. Another useful feature of the Notice Manager is the date range search option. This option only allows you to search in increments of seven days. However it is a useful tool when you are looking for all the notices you have created for the week or simply need to quickly find a notice you created on a specific date. The second display area contains your listings for the search you performed or if you have not performed a search, the display area will include the tickets that you have created today just by clicking Get Notice List. The listings display area contains information on location requests that you have entered and also allows options to: edit (coming soon), see related tickets, read a particular tickets text or review the map of the listed ticket. See example listings below. At the top of the notice listings display area you will notice a key. This key provides you with information concerning the status of the tickets that are displayed. 52

53 Each symbol is directly related to the editing abilities of a particular ticket. Below you will find brief descriptions of the various symbols included within the key. Most Recent Version: a ticket with this symbol next to it is an editable ticket. It is, the most recent version of a ticket in a series of related tickets. Intermediate Version: a ticket with this symbol is not editable. This is a ticket that is not the original or the most recent. You can click on related tickets to get the most recent ticket. The most recent ticket will be the only editable ticket in the series. Original Version: a ticket with this symbol is not editable. This is the first ticket or original within a series of tickets. You can click on related tickets to get the most recent ticket. The most recent ticket will be the only editable ticket in the series. Single Notice: A ticket with this symbol is editable. This is the only ticket that is related to this particular location and therefore, no related tickets will be applicable. Once you have found the location request you are looking for, you have several options. You can view its text and/or map to obtain information on the particular location request. Coming soon, you will have the option to update a particular location request. As long as the location request is an editable version, you will be able to edit it. You may be updating the location request to provide new location information, change the work date, or you may simply be looking to get the marks on your worksite refreshed. Updating A Location Request Once you have located the particular location request that you want to update, you will need to follow some basic, yet important guidelines to ensure you get your desired results. 53

54 In the example above, you will notice that we have located the location request we wish to update and that this location matches the criteria for a ticket that can be edited. The location request exampled above is a single notice and offers the option to edit or view the text and map. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will be selecting the edit option. By selecting the edit option, you are allowing this particular location request to be updated. To achieve this, simply click on the edit link as displayed in the option above. This will bring up Step 3 of Notice Creation. This is where you can update/edit the location request. You may also Print from this location by selecting the Text & Map link. That will bring up the ticket text in a separate window where you would right click on the text of the ticket and select Print from the dialog box. You may also scroll down through the text and click View Map. Once the map opens just right click on the map and select Print and then from the fly-out, select Print this Map. When our APR (Automated Positive Response) feature is finally approved, you may click on Responses and get a detailed list of the mark-out status of the ticket. In short, this is the locators link to you. 54

55 The Notice Creation screen for updating a location is the same display that you see when you enter a new location request using the notice creation process. The exception in this instance, is that all of the information for the location request you have selected will be displayed in the various fields. It is very important to check each and every field for accuracy before submitting your update. 55

56 One very important area that NEEDS to be changed is the work date. If you are updating a location request, please ensure that the new work date is in compliance with New York State Law Code Rule 753. Any update that is not in compliance with the 2-10 working day law requirement will need to be called into the Dig Safely New York Operations Center at Once you have changed the date on your particular location request, please verify the remaining information for accuracy. Finally, be sure to view the map to ensure that your location is represented correctly. If the map information needs corrections, please do so before submiting your update. If all the information is accurate and you have changed the work date to reflect the legal working date and the map accurately reflects your work site, you can move forward by submitting the notice. Click on Create Notice and then follow the steps outlined in the Final Confirmation Section of this Guide. 56

57 Important: If you are an advanced user... Make sure you change your settings on step 3 of 3 from Completed to SUSPEND. Or Call the office to have your ticket cancelled if you forgot to do that. Scenario #1) New Street That is not on the Map yet. Use your Company Info but do not alter any of it. You may change Field Contact Info & # s only. You will be doing a location request for a new house construction. Working in Onondaga County / Town of Clay The work location of the New Road is at: Lot 16, 2208 BRANDNEW STREET It is to the EAST off Henry Clay Blvd between NY RT 31 & NY RT 481 (You have no idea which road it is closest to.) You need the entire lot marked out. You are doing the work for a General Contractor. You will be digging for a Foundation with a backhoe and no blasting. You do know that you will be less than 2000 off Henry Clay Blvd. The Lot is staked now with Survey Stakes. Begin work on the first legal date available. ***PUT TEST TICKET *** in the Comments Box*** Scenario #2) No Cross Streets Known Use your Company Info but do not alter any of it. You may change Field Contact Info & # s only. You will be doing a location request to put up a fence in the back yard of a home. Working in Monroe County / Town of Pittsford The Home is at 70 Charter Oaks Dr You need the entire backyard from House to the rear property line located. You will be starting 1 full week from today at 11:00 AM You will be using an Auger with no Blasting. Doing the work for the Property Owner. You want them to mark with flags only & not spray paint the whole back yard & bushes. 57

58 Scenario #3) Only 1 Cross Street with Distance & Direction Use your Company Info but do not alter any of it. You may change Field Contact Info & # s only. You will be doing a location request for replacing & widening a driveway 2 feet each side of the existing driveway. Working in Chautauqua County / Town of Dunkirk The Residence is at 4456 Willow Rd You only have 1 cross street which is Temple St. You know they are approximately 1500 East of the intersection with Temple on Willow St. Starting on the first legal dig date available. Using a backhoe with no blasting. Working for the Property Owner Site is not marked. Describe the work site so the locator marks it properly from the road to the garage. ***PUT TEST TICKET *** in the Comments Box*** Scenario #4) Normal Request with 2 Cross Streets Use your Company Info but do not alter any of it. You may change Field Contact Info & # s only. You will be doing a location request for repair of a water line for a Car Dealership. Working in Albany County / City of Albany. Working for A-1 Used Autos Beginning on the first legal dig date at 10:00 AM. The Field Contact will be Mr. A-1 Himself / Cell Phone # Working at 835 Madison Ave. between N. Main Ave & Partridge St. The water line to the building needs to be replaced from the Road The Line enters the bldg. on the N. Main Ave. side and comes from Madison Ave. Equipment used consists of a Backhoe and Directional Drill. No Blasting and the area is not marked out. ***PUT TEST TICKET *** in the Comments Box*** Scenario #5) An Extended Intersection Locate Request Use your Company Info but do not alter any of it. You may change Field Contact Info & # s only. You will be at an intersection and working 800 up one road of it for this Locate Request. You will be working in Westchester County / City of Mount Vernon. 58

59 You will be installing a fence at the Intersection of N. Columbus Ave. and the Cross County Pkwy. Ext. You will be putting the Fence from the Intersection up 800 on the South side of the Entrance/Exit Ramp to the Expressway. Start Date is 8 working days from today. Doing the work for the NYS DOT. Machinery involved will be an Auger, and the area is not marked out. State that you would like a fax or confirmation from all utilities of completion of mark-out or non-involvement. The Map Must match the text description of the work site. ***PUT TEST TICKET *** in the Comments Box*** 59

60 60 Format Pad For those of you with scanners or copy machines...

61 Emergency Locate Creation For i-notice Addendum for creating emergency locates 2/25/2005 This section will guide you through creating an Emergency Locate Request. This is very much like creating a normal stake out request. We will first determine what an Emergency Locate Request is. As stated in New York State Code Rule 753 an emergency is defined as: Any abnormal condition which presents an immediate danger to life or property including the discontinuance of vital utility service necessary for the maintenance of public health, safety and welfare. It is imperative the ability to create emergency locate requests not get abused. Should there be any locate request being created and sent as emergency that is not an emergency, the users ability to create them will terminate. Any users letting other people create tickets on their username and password will also be Terminated. This is NOT a blanket privilege for any one dispatch office. Should there be more than one user in an office that needs to create any type of locate request, as always, they will need their own i-notice account with their own username & password. Step #1 There is not much difference in creating an Emergency locate opposed to a regular locate request. I will briefly go over all the screens in a test Emergency Locate scenario. Log in the same as always. When you reach the Irth Options Page, there is NO Irth Guy displayed for an Emergency Locate Request. You access this option from the Notice Creation Button on blue drop-down menu above the Options Box. Left click on the button and then choose, Emergency Ticket Creation. 61

62 Step #2 The Disclaimer Page will appear same as always. Read if you choose and then click I Agree to proceed to the step 1 of 3 screen. Step #3 Enter all the information into step 1 of 3 as you normally do. Nothing has changed on this page. Again, do not change any of your Company information within this form. Only the Field Contact information, corresponding contact alternatives, and numbers may be altered from ticket to ticket. Then Click the Next button at the top of the step 1 of 3 page. 62

63 Step #4 Enter all the Site Information as you normally do. Nothing has changed on this page. Step #5 Step 3 of 3 is where most all of the changes in the i-notice form are. Notice there is NO Date Field for you to enter a start date and time the excavation will take place. That is because the Emergency Status is automatically set by the form to capture the actual time you create this notice. Remember, you must be starting the work within 0-4 hours of the creation date & time of this ticket. The same rules apply as if you were calling in to the Call Center. You must also state in the Comments Box if your Emergency Crew is on the Way to the Site or if the Emergency Crew is On the Site Now performing the excavation. See the example on the next page. 63

64 64 The above example shows what has to be entered into the Comments Text Block area. One of those statements MUST be entered into the Emergency Locate Request. Also Remember...You must View the Map to make sure it is correctly gridded. In the Near Street Field you should give us 2 perpendicular cross streets to the actual street you are working on or in the case of only one cross street, just list the distance and direction from that cross street. If the above steps are followed, there should be no noticeable delay in processing your Emergency Locate Request.

65 Once all the information is entered into the form, click the Create Notice button. That will take you to the all familiar Notice Confirmation Page. Once you ve proofread your ticket, click Submit - Notice and your Emergency Locate Request will go right to the utilities involved with your gridded dig site. The Ticket will then display as always and will give you the same options as always, Create another Ticket or Back To Irth Internet. In Notice Manager, your ticket will be displayed like the one below. Notice the Red text stating that it is an Emergency under the Priority catagory. 65

66 Design Inquiry Creation For i-notice Addendum for creating design locates 3/4/2005 This section will guide you through creating a Design Locate Request. This is very much like creating a normal stake out request. We will first determine what a Design Locate Request is. A Survey and Design request is usually requested by a design Crew that is not actually digging within two to ten days working days, but wants to know the locations of underground utility lines to better plan a future excavation or construction project. Step #1 There is not much difference in doing an Design locate opposed to a regular locate request. I will briefly go over all the screens in a test Design Locate scenario. Log in the same as always. When you reach the Irth Options Page, do not click on the Irth Guy icon for Design Inquiry, you will get an error message. At the time of this printing, this problem is not yet fixed. You must access this option from the Notice Creation Button on blue drop-down menu above the Options Box. Hold your pointer over the button and then move down and choose, Design Ticket Creation. Step #2 The Disclaimer Page will appear same as always. Read if you choose and then click I Agree to proceed to the step 1 of 3 screen. 66

67 Step #3 Enter all the information into step 1 of 3 as you normally do. Nothing has changed on this page. Again, do not change any of your Company information within this form. Only the Field Contact information, corresponding contact alternatives, and numbers may be altered from ticket to ticket. Then Click the Next button at the top of the step 1 of 3 page. 67

68 Step #4 Enter all the Site Information as you normally do. Nothing has changed on this page. Step #5 Step 3 of 3 is where all of the changes in the i-notice form are. Notice there is NO Date Field for you to enter a start date and time the work will take place. There is also no option in the Work Type field. Enter Survey & Design or just Design Ticket into the text box below the Work Type field with the drop down arrow. - See Example on next page - 68

69 Once all the information is entered into the form, click the Create Notice button. That will take you to the all familiar Notice Confirmation Page. Once you ve proofread your ticket, click Submit - Notice and your Design Locate Request will go right to the utilities involved with your gridded dig site. The Ticket will then display as always, however, it will give you the Design Contact Numbers of the affected Member Utilities, not the same group of numbers had this been an Emergency or Regular Stakeout Request. You will also notice on the Confirmation Page and on the page that gives you your ticket number, that this is a Priority 6 type locate. All that means is that this is a Design Locate Request. 1 being an Emergency Locate, 4 being a Regular Locate etc. 69