EXCAVATION: UTILITY STRIKES
One bucket through a marked line and the job's margin is gone. Liability turns on the 811 locate, the tolerance zone, and hand-exposure discipline. Fines are $2,500 for a first violation in New York and up to $10,000 for a repeat inside 12 months; injury cases bring civil exposure from $50K to $5M.
This page covers one problem. The other places this trade loses margin are on the excavation operating system page.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
One bucket through a marked line and the job's margin is gone. Liability turns on the 811 locate, the tolerance zone, and hand-exposure discipline. Fines are $2,500 for a first violation in New York and up to $10,000 for a repeat inside 12 months; injury cases bring civil exposure from $50K to $5M. Washington's statute now reads as strict liability. In Titan Earthwork v. City of Federal Way, the excavator called 811 and still ended up in court. It had relied on the city's word that the lines were relocated.
THE COST, SOURCED.
General liability policies often sublimit damage to underground facilities. The coverage you think you have may cap out below the repair bill. (Grit Insurance, 2026)
THE SAME PROBLEM, WRITTEN UP.
The utility company calls the excavator.
Mason Private Locating, describing where the finger-pointing always lands
THE NUMBER TO MEASURE IT AGAINST.
Excavation contractors have about 7% net profit at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 10% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS net profit target is 10.5% before taxes at $1M to $5M, the trade's average plus 3.5 points, never below 10%. You find a problem like this in the distance between those two figures. One bad job won't tell you.
Gross margin over the same bands is 21% to 23%,against CFOS targets of 23.5% and 25.5%.
THE SYSTEM THAT FIXES THIS.
Cost codes built against the estimate, so a job can be read while it is open.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
