Line Marking

Putting the traced position of a utility onto the ground surface in APWA color-coded paint and flags, normally with a field sketch recording offsets to permanent features so the marks can be re-established later.

Marking is the deliverable most excavation crews actually need, because it is readable without a drawing or a device. Its weakness is that it is temporary: paint and flags do not survive rain, traffic, or a construction season, and there is no way to re-find a mark that has worn off without re-locating. That is why long-running projects budget for re-marks and why anything that has to outlive the paint gets captured as coordinates instead.