A recently enacted law and a pending permitting bill could represent needed changes to underground utilities and the state's broadband landscape, officials said this week.

Jason Broyles, Ohio 811 public awareness and services supervisor, and BroadbandOhio Chief Peter Voderberg touched on those measures (HB 227 & HB 979 ) during the Ohio Broadband and Technology Association's annual convention on Tuesday.

HB227, led by Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel, R-Columbiana, and Rep. Mark Johnson, R-Chillicothe, passed with unanimous support in both chambers and gives utility operators two work days, instead of 48 hours, to respond to excavation notices.

The Ohio Gas Association, the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and the Ohio Underground Damage Prevention Coalition were among several proponents of the legislation. Broyles said the change gives utility operators more flexibility to respond to notices and allows them to keep a more fixed work schedule.

"If any of you have ever dealt with the locating aspect for your companies, you realize if I sit down at 11:30 today and I put in a notice, your locators aren't actually going to look at that notification until they come into work tomorrow morning," he said. "So, they've essentially already lost 15 to 24 hours of their 48 hours just because of the way they're doing business." Broyles said changing it to two work days allows operators to "have that little bit of time back" and improves their ability to locate underground utilities.

He added that, when other states switched to a two-day period, operators saw an average of a 32% increase in finding underground lines on time.

Broyles also noted that excavators have 16 days after a notification is made to start work, instead of 10 days, under the law. That revision "got rid of a lot of the confusion" in the industry especially as it related to state-recognized holidays, he said. The law further expanded the list of excavation activities that are exempt from notifying 811. Milling and grinding of road surfaces, utility wood pole inspections and shallow tilling are all now considered exempt as long as they do not surpass various depths underground, he said.

"As soon as you hit that earth or subbase, you have to stop excavating," Broyles said. "Get the phone, go online, notify 811, even if it's shallower than what the depth is."

BroadbandOhio has worked with 811 as the state continues to target statewide high-speed internet access. Voderberg said that he hopes the state's remaining Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment funds can further help utility operators find underground lines.

Permitting has remained a sore spot, slowing the state's progress, he said. HB979 from Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Haviland, aims to improve that process. The legislation would in part require local authorities to establish permitting procedures and timelines for broadband requests. The proposal also mandates broadband providers provide "accurate plans" showing the design, location and depth of their proposed installations, per the bill.

Voderberg said BroadbandOhio has documented issues with local, aerial and underground permitting for years. Those issues have consequences, he said.

The office will be involved in interested party meetings on the legislation, where Voderberg plans to further detail how permitting is impacting the rollout of broadband connectivity statewide. "We'll explain how the Make Ready Fund had slowdowns for applications because permitting was slowed down by our aerial pole owners for a little while," he said. "Local permitting has slowed down projects and caused projects to fail in some instances."

With the proposal, Voderberg said that "safety does remain a top priority for all of our projects, whether funded by BroadbandOhio or by private investment."