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Request a Locate in Ames
Finding and marking the buried lines on the owner side of the meter, the ones a one-call ticket does not cover.
In Ames, Iowa — population 65,060, with buried infrastructure laid down over decades and recorded unevenly — private utility locating is how a site gets read before anyone breaks ground. Local construction, telecommunications work drives most of the demand.
A one-call ticket brings out the member utilities, and each marks the public lines it owns, stopping at the meter, the pedestal, or the edge of the right-of-way. Private utility locating covers everything past that boundary: the water service running to the building, the gas run out to a shop or generator, site lighting and sign circuits, irrigation mains, sewer and septic laterals, and the power and fiber feeding a second structure. A private locator is hired by the property owner rather than by the utility, works the whole site rather than one company's assets, and pairs an electromagnetic locator with a ground penetrating radar cart because neither instrument finds everything on its own.
Project-planning data for Ames, IA — soil, climate, and regulatory factors that shape how locating crews scope work in this market.
Ames sits in a continental climate, with winter ground freeze reaching 48 inches — frost changes what ground penetrating radar returns, and it stops paint from bonding, so cold-season work leans on recorded offsets and coordinates. Local ground: Clay, Loam, Sandy loam. Soil conductivity is the variable that decides how much of a locate radar can contribute, because conductive ground absorbs the radar pulse instead of reflecting it. Primary industries — construction, telecommunications — drive steady demand for private utility locating across the Story County area.
Iowa One Call (811) requires 48 hours of advance notice before any excavation in Iowa. That notification is free and it is separate from private utility locating: it brings out the member facility owners to mark the lines they own, and stops at the meter or the right-of-way. Wait for every member to respond before ground is opened.
Locating is quoted per job rather than off a rate card, because the work is a search and a search scales with the site rather than with the clock. On a Ames job, the things that move the number are how much ground has to be covered, how many targets are in play, whether there are meters, valves, risers, or panels a transmitter can be clipped to, what the lines are made of, what the local ground (clay, loam, sandy loam) does to the instruments, and whether you need surface marks or a record you keep.
Describe the job once through Utility Hotline. Our team reviews the request, then locating companies covering Ames and Story County send you their own quotes, so you are comparing them against the same scope. It is free to request.
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Radar imaging of the subsurface that finds plastic pipe, tanks, and voids no signal can be put on.
APWA color-coded paint and flags on the ground so the crew about to dig can see what is under them.
Turning a field locate into a permanent CAD, GIS, or coordinate record that outlives the paint.
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Iowa One Call — Always call 811 before excavation.
