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ASCE 38 quality-level deliverables — records research, field designation, and test-hole verification, sealed by an engineer.
In Des Moines, Washington — population 31,221, with buried infrastructure laid down over decades and recorded unevenly — subsurface utility engineering is how a site gets read before anyone breaks ground. Local construction work drives most of the demand.
Subsurface utility engineering is the engineering practice that puts a stated confidence level on every utility shown on a drawing. ASCE 38-22 defines four quality levels: QL-D from records research, QL-C from surveyed surface features, QL-B from field geophysics, and QL-A from physically exposing the line and measuring it. A SUE scope ties field work to project survey control, adds records research, verifies the conflicts that matter with test holes, and delivers a signed and sealed drawing where each segment carries its own quality level — so a designer knows exactly which positions can be built to.
Project-planning data for Des Moines, WA — soil, climate, and regulatory factors that shape how locating crews scope work in this market.
Des Moines sits in a temperate climate, with winter ground freeze reaching 18 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 — drive steady demand for subsurface utility engineering across the King County area.
Washington 811 (811) requires 2 business days of advance notice before any excavation in Washington. That notification is free and it is separate from subsurface utility engineering: 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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines and King 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 Des Moines
Turning a field locate into a permanent CAD, GIS, or coordinate record that outlives the paint.
Test holes that expose a buried line so its position and depth stop being estimates and become measurements.
Radar imaging of the subsurface that finds plastic pipe, tanks, and voids no signal can be put on.
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Washington 811 — Always call 811 before excavation.
