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Request a Locate in Ames
Turning a field locate into a permanent CAD, GIS, or coordinate record that outlives the paint.
In Ames, Iowa — population 65,060, with buried infrastructure laid down over decades and recorded unevenly — utility mapping is how a site gets read before anyone breaks ground. Local construction, telecommunications work drives most of the demand.
Utility mapping is the locate plus the record. Field crews trace the lines the same way they would for a marking job, then capture every mark as a coordinate with survey-grade GNSS or a total station instead of leaving it as a paint dot. The output is a layered drawing, a GIS layer, or a point file tied to real survey control, annotated by quality level so a designer knows which positions were traced and which were physically verified. Paint is gone in a few weeks of weather and traffic; a map stays with the property and can be re-staked years later.
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 utility mapping 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 utility mapping: 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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Get Free QuotesCommon questions about private utility locating in Ames
Finding and marking the buried lines on the owner side of the meter, the ones a one-call ticket does not cover.
ASCE 38 quality-level deliverables — records research, field designation, and test-hole verification, sealed by an engineer.
APWA color-coded paint and flags on the ground so the crew about to dig can see what is under them.
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Iowa One Call — Always call 811 before excavation.
