Subsurface Utility Engineering, also referred to as S.U.E., is a branch of civil engineering practice as defined by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standard 38-02, which is the “Standard Guideline for the Collection and Depiction of Existing Subsurface Utility Data”. ASCE Standard 38-02 outlines a system for classifying the quality of the existing subsurface utility data, which includes four quality levels of data collection:  Quality Levels A, B, C, and D. Civil SUE Inc. provides all four quality levels of utility data as described in our services page.

EM or Electromagnetic also known as RF or Radio Frequency locating equipment uses a transmitter and a receiver to generate a signal around the utility. The transmitter conducts a signal onto the utility, and the receiver is able to pick up and read the centerline of the signal.

When there is not an access point on the non-metallic utility, Civil SUE Inc. will utilize our Mala EL Core 450 mHz GPR to perform Grid Scans in an attempt to accurately designate the horizontal and vertical positioning of the utility.

 Civil SUE Inc. follows the APWA Utility Color Code outlined in ASCE 38-22

Prior to any ground disturbances it is the client’s responsibility to always call 811 and follow their guidelines. Private utility locating companies, like Civil SUE INC., do not replace the 811-call required by law. Civil SUE Inc. is an extra layer of protection to the public utilities marked by Miss Utility, but more importantly is offering protection to ALL utilities by scanning for ALL utilities – public, private, abandoned, conduit, unknown, and more.

A ground disturbance is any activity that disturbs the ground within a project area. Some examples of ground disturbances are: excavating, pounding stakes, fence posts, pounding T-post, silt fence, stripping topsoil, trenching, directional drilling, landscaping, blasting, tunneling, soil boring/testing, test-pitting, auguring, asphalt milling, concrete jackhammering, leveling, backfilling, sign installs, and more.

The vast majority of buried utilities are privately owned; therefore, you need someone to scan for ALL underground utilities prior to digging or designing, which is NOT something Miss Utility “811” does. 811 also relies solely on their as-built drawings that can be and have proven to be documented improperly. 811 is about quantity not quality and has a two-foot margin of error on each side of their marks. This is quite large when it comes to thoroughness and accuracy. We are committed to our paint marks being correct because we are dedicated to quality, thoroughness, accuracy, and safety.

811 was created specifically as a “Call Before You Dig” service. 811 is NOT a “call before you design” service and NOT to be relied upon for finding ALL underground utilities. Calling a private utility locating company will eliminate changes having to be made to project designs because of utilities missed during the design process. Private utility designating companies like Civil SUE Inc. implement a more thorough designating/ mapping process, as well as have a wider range of EML and GPR equipment on their trucks, resulting in a more complete scan of underground utilities.