Facility Operators

Complete this form to register your underground facilities with Iowa One Call

Iowa Law requires all operators of [underground facilities – Link] (excluding private facilities)to register their underground facilities with the Iowa One Call System. You may complete and submit the form provided below, or contact the Iowa One Call center at (563) 884-7762.

New Company Information Form

What is a regular locate request?

It is the most common type of request processed through IOC. It is made at least 48 hours (not counting weekends or legal holidays) in advance and involves a request for utility locates at a specific address or area for a specified dig start date. Please note: Iowa State law requires at least 48 hours (not counting weekends or holidays) advance notice, prior to routine excavation. 

Locate requests are processed immediately and transmitted to participating operators of underground facilities.

What is an emergency locate request?

Chapter 480 of the Iowa Code defines an emergency locate request as: a condition where there is clear and immediate danger to life or health, or essential services, or a potentially significant loss of property.

1. An unforeseen excavation necessary in order to prevent a condition that poses a clear and immediate danger to life or health.
2. An excavation required to repair a utility service outage.
3. An immediate excavation required in order to prevent significant property or environmental damage.
4. The repair of an existing unstable condition which may result in any of the conditions listed above (for example, a leak in any service or main, or a fault in a primary or secondary wire or cable).

When calling in an emergency excavation request, inform the answering operator that an emergency situation exists and be prepared to explain. The answering attendant will prepare a location request for immediate transmission and note your planned start time. It is essential to leave a phone number, which will be answered by someone who can further explain the situation or accept a positive response notification.

A emergency locate request call is processed immediately.

If an underground facility operator does not respond in a reasonable amount of time, call the underground facility operator directly or IOC. IOC will send another request to the underground facility operator that has not responded.

Dig-In (To Report Damage)

All excavators who come in physical contact with a buried facility must immediately report any damage caused to that facility to the specific owner/operator of the facility involved. Excavators can find the repair or emergency telephone number of the buried facility owner/operators in the telephone directory or on any buried facility markers in the area. If in doubt as to whose facility it is, excavators can call Iowa One Call to report a “dig-in.” The IOC will then contact all owner/operators in the area.

Reporting all instances of damaged facilities is extremely important and required by law. Even minor scratches, dents, or nicks can lead to the structural failure of buried facilities and result in catastrophic incidents.

What is a Joint Meet Survey?

The Joint Meet Survey is no longer available and has been replaced by the Design Information Request. For more information on the Design Information Request, please see the details below, or click on the Design Request System link at the left of this page.

Design Information Request

A Design Information Request provides professional designers with the necessary contact information for them to obtain maps, drawings and other information that identifies the location of underground facilities in a site of interest to the designer.  This service is available to Professional Designers who have submitted an application, had that application approved and have paid the subscription fee.

Upon approval of the application and paying the requisite annual subscription fee ($250 for an individual or $500 for a firm with up to ten users), the designer(s) will be issued username(s) and password(s) to the Design website. The authorized user will enter a Design Information Request by identifying the general outline of the project using polygons on an interactive map. The designer will then receive a list of all underground facility owner/operators in the area along with their contact information. The designer can make contact with the owner/operators, seeking maps and drawings of the underground facilities in the project site. No locates will be provided—only information. Any charges by the owner/operator for this information will be between the owner/operator and the designer.

Once the designer has received the information from the facilities, he/she may see the need for more specific information from one or more of the facilities. In that case, he/she may go back to the website and enter a Design Locate Request. Using the tracking number from the Design Information request, the designer can request on site locates from any or all of the facilities in the project site. The affected owner/operators in the project site will receive a Design Locate Request (without the usual ticket fees) and will be asked to provide on site locates of their underground facilities within five business days.

What is a Design Locate Request?

Qualified designers who have completed a Design Information Request can create a Design Locate Request after a minimum wait of ten (10) business days. The designer enters the subscribers only website and converts the Design Information Request to a Design Locate Request. The computer will map the area indicated as the project site and identify the underground facilities located in the site. The designer can reduce the size of the project site or stay with the original size. The designer can pick and choose the facilities to be located and by submitting this request, a Design Locate ticket (note that this is NOT a dig ticket) will be generated (at no cost to the facility owner/operator) directing them to locate and mark their facilities in the project site within five (5) working days. For more information about the Design Request System, go to www.iowaonecall.com and click on Design Request System.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the IOC mapping coordinator, Steve Halstead, at 515-278-8700 or cell 515-314-1469 or by email at stevehalstead@mchsi.com.

If you need to update your company information with Iowa One Call, please click the link and submit the form.

Update Company Information

If you need to update your database information with Iowa One Call, please click the link and submit the form.

Update Database Form

If you need to update your locate receiver information with Iowa One Call, please click the link, fill out and submit the form.

Locate Receiver Information Form

Design Request System

Damage prevention begins at the planning stage of any project. Professional designers and surveyors play a vital role in planning for, and preventing damage to the essential underground facilities infrastructure.  The Design Request System (DRS) is an important tool developed for the design and surveying communities, providing them access to critical information about the infrastructure and to the one calllocate process.

The DRS is a two-phase system that must be utilized accordingly and is intended for use only by licensed design professionals.  The first phase is the Design Information Request, which provides designers with direct access to key contacts within the state’s underground facility operator organizations (for the exchange of critical information).  The second phase is the Design Locate Request, which provides designers access to the Iowa One Call system (for coordinating underground facility locates).

What is a Design Information Request?

The Design Information Request was developed to provide professional designers access to maps, drawings and blue prints showing the location of underground facilities in a site of interest to the designer. This service is available to Professional Designers who have submitted an application, had that application approved and have paid an annual subscription fee. When those qualifications are met, the designer will be issued a username and password providing access to a “subscribers only” website. There they will use an interactive mapping system to identify the site of their project. The computerized program will provide the designer with the names and contact information for all underground facilities within the proposed project area. It will be the designer’s responsibility to seek whatever information they need for their work from the facility owner/operators. The facility owner/operators and the designers will negotiate any fees involved. No tickets will be issued and no locates will be done under a Design Information Request. A Design Information Request will remain active for a maximum of two (2) years.

What is a Design Locate Request?

Qualified designers who have completed a Design Information Request can create a Design Locate Request after a minimum wait of ten (10) business days. The designer enters the subscribers-only website and converts the Design Information Request to a Design Locate Request. The computer will map the area indicated as the project site and identify the underground facilities located in the site. The designer can reduce the size of the project site or stay with the original size. The designer can pick and choose the facilities to be located and by submitting this request, a Design Locate ticket (note that this is NOT a dig ticket) will be generated (at no cost to the facility owner/operator) directing them to locate and mark their facilities in the project site within five (5) working days. For more information about the Design Request System, go to www.iowaonecall.com and click on Design Request System.

Iowa One Call’s Electronic Positive Response System (EPR), provides locators/facility operators and excavators with an efficient online communications and response system.   Effectively, the EPRS documents the status of the operator’s/locator’s locate ticket (the locating and marking of underground facilities at a specified area of proposed excavation).  Operator’s/locator’s can access the EPRS to document the status of each locate ticket (i.e.: whether the ticket is pending, or if it has been completed, or “cleared”).   Excavators can log on to the EPRS to review the locating status of their worksite.

Locators represent the underground facility operator.  Iowa law requires all underground facility operators to register with and utilize the Iowa One call system accordingly.  Underground facility operators are responsible for locating and marking the portion of any underground facilities that they own and operate.

All locate requests transmitted via the Iowa One Call System are official and require positive response from the operator (locator).

Locators must not refuse a locate request of any kind once transmitted via the Iowa One Call System.

Only an operator can use the proper channels to dispute an official Iowa One Call locate transmission.

Decisions made in the field by locators must be documented.

Locators must follow the provisions established via state law (Iowa Code, Chapter 480) and the proper protocols established by the facility operators for whom the locating and marking of underground facilities is being performed.

All locators must establish effective communications with the excavators in the field who will be performing excavations in proximity to the underground facilities located by the locators.

Locators must use proper channels of communication for reporting incidents and issues that may impact safety and damage prevention.

Locators do not represent Iowa One Call and must refrain from making assumptions and potentially misleading statements pertaining to Iowa One Call and the Iowa Code, Chapter 480.  Locators can communicate via proper channels to verify Iowa One Call requirements, policies and established protocols.

Effectively reaching the public with important damage prevention and safety awareness outreach programming and communications is an essential component of the state’s overall underground damage prevention system.  Iowa One Call encourages all facility operators to promote the damage prevention message via their communications, public relations and marketing outreach programs.

As an Iowa One Call member operator, your organization has access to a variety of educational and promotional resources available from Iowa One Call’s promotional materials inventory.  Additionally, custom programming and promotional partnerships can be arranged as an efficient means of combining and utilizing resources to promote underground damage prevention and excavation safety.

If you are interested in coordinating public awareness outreach programming/events please contact Ben Booth at benbooth@netins.net