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Contractors advised to change dig‑ticket habits after SB 778 tweaks to 4216
Summary
Contractor representatives at the Sept. 8 meeting urged practical ticket-management changes after 2025 statutory updates to California Government Code section 4216; presenters explained what operator responses must include and gave field guidance for excavators.
Logan Downer, cofounder and general manager of Excavate 11, told the California Underground Safety Board on Sept. 8 in Sacramento that recent statutory changes (SB 778) alter how operators must respond to dig tickets and that contractors should adjust ticketing practices to reduce risk and liability.
Why it matters: the statutory language governing how operators must fulfill obligations prior to a ticket's legal start date has changed; contractors, locators and call centers must interpret responses consistently to avoid unsafe excavations and post‑incident disputes.
Downer described several changes to what the meeting referred to as "42 16" provisions and gave field advice. He said the law now requires that, prior to the legal start date and time on a ticket, an operator must do one of the following for the excavator: locate and mark the subsurface installations, provide location information (for example a GPS as‑built), or state there is no conflict. "Now…
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