Electric, gas, water, and telecommunications lines often run underground where you’d least expect them. Hitting one can cause serious injury, service outages, and costly damage. Illinois law requires you to contact JULIE before any digging project, regardless of size or depth.
REQUIRED BY LAW
Call JULIE (Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators) before you dig.
The call is free, and so are the locating services.
JULIE, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization - not a utility itself - that gives homeowners and excavators one single point of contact for safe digging. On your behalf, JULIE notifies underground utility owners like EnerStar, who then mark their own lines at your property at no cost to you. Note: you can’t call EnerStar directly to request a locate.
Anytime you’re breaking ground - whether it’s for a deck, patio, fence, mailbox post, swing set, tree, garden, room addition, or sign - you need to call first.
Five steps from your first call to breaking ground.
That’s two business days, excluding weekends and holidays. Have your specific location, and the type and size of your excavation area, ready to provide.
JULIE recommends marking the area with white paint and/or flags to help utility locators identify your project site.
Each JULIE utility member is responsible for marking their own underground facilities within that two-business-day window.
Your project must begin within 14 days from the time you call.
Call JULIE by Wednesday at 4:00 PM to stay within their required notice window.