Extraordinary Circumstances

To view frequently asked questions about Extraordinary Circumstances, click here.

Periodically there are reasons a Georgia 811 Member needs to invoke Extraordinary Circumstances to alert excavators that they are unable to mark their underground facilities in accordance of the law. This means that the affected member will respond to PRIS using 3J to notify the excavator of their circumstances.

In order to declare Extraordinary Circumstances, the member must meet the criteria as described in the Georgia Underground Facility Protection Act:
§ 25-9-3. Definitions 14) “Extraordinary circumstances” means circumstances other than normal operating conditions which exist and make it impractical or impossible for a facility owner or operator to comply with the provisions of this chapter. Such extraordinary circumstances may include, but shall not be limited to, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, ice and snow, and acts of God.

After declaring Extraordinary Circumstances with Georgia 811, members must still respond to all applicable requests with the PRIS code 3J. Notifying Georgia 811 is only one step in the process. Extraordinary Circumstances is not fully invoked until utility members respond to any/all locate requests, during their specified time period, with that code.

Once the Extraordinary Circumstance has passed, the member must update all instances of 3J responses to the applicable PRIS code.

When a member submits the form below during normal business hours (Monday to Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.), the Extraordinary Circumstance (EC) will be added to the current Georgia 811 List of EC Declarations during the same business day.

When the form is submitted outside of normal business hours, the Extraordinary Circumstance will be added to the Georgia 811 List of EC Declarations no later than 10 a.m. on the next business day.

Please fill out the below form to declare Extraordinary Circumstances (All Fields Required). Please note that it is the member’s responsibility to inform their Locate Contractor that they have declared Extraordinary Circumstances and the date range for which it was declared. Locate contractors will need to ensure they are responding to the tickets within the member’s service areas with the 3J PRIS code during that time frame.