Texas State Law concerning posthole digging

[Caustic Burno]

Heck over here the phone line's are in the ditch county grader cut's them once or more a week.
Half the phone line's are run through yaupon bushes on the side of the road, most people have went to wireless.

 

[highgrit]

If its on my land I should of been paid for the easement or right of way. Or it should be on the land deed, and or survey as a right of way or easement. I have 115 acre's of easement for Ga. Transmission for power lines through my land now. Just don't abuse my rights.

 

[calfbuyer]

Now your gonna hear it from a Telephone Company Employee. I work for a rural telephone coop. If your gonna dig, just call. It wont cost you a dime for us to come locate the line. If you don't call and you cut it, it will cost you the cost of all repairs plus labor involved even overtime if its at night or on the weekend. If its a fiber optic its gonna cost you BIG. If we locate it and our marks are off and you hit the line then thats our problem. Just call before you dig, thats all there is to it. regardless if you agree, disagree or are right,wrong or indiferent. Just call and CYA

 

[jedstivers]

I think most everyone has missed the point of this post.
Yes it is best to call but on your land if you know their is none or it's not in the deed or you have never been paid and want to take the chance it should be your choice and pocketbook paying if your wrong. Just more of landowner rights being eroded.
We plow up telephone lines all the time because it's two shallow, it's their fault then. Also plowed up a sewer line that didn't have a easement paid and the city wanted me to pay the bill till I told them they could get started relocating it out of the field, they said don't worry about the bill.

 

[pdfangus]

as some have said it is not just a Texas law....
and your disregarding it is not a problem until you hit something....

I cut a phone line once when replacing a post that had been hit by an errant driver...
It was part of a corner brace assembly and I dug the stump out because the new post had to go in the same spot.

cotton picking phone line was under the post and I cut it when I took the hole a bit deeper.

 

[Lucky_P]

Place we lived at in MO - just west of Columbia - had THE main transcontinental phone line running right through the front yard. They had a guy whose job was to drive back and forth from KC to St.Louis every day, just looking for anyone doing any work that might pose a problem.
Waterline had to be replaced; owners had a backhoe out - the phone co. guy showed up - 'What are y'all fixin' to do?!' - he had to show 'em where the line was, dig down to it by hand and stay there 'til they'd trenched, run the new line, and covered everything up. If they'd have cut that sucker, he said it would have cost 'em $100 thousand - plus having to reroute calls all over the place.