Before you dig in New Zealand
Who to contact, in what order, and the operators most people miss.
Before excavating in New Zealand, submit a free beforeUdig enquiry to reach the asset owners registered with it, then contact the operators that are not members separately - beforeUdig says identifying those is your responsibility. Then have the services located and marked on the ground before you break it.
Type your worksite address to see who serves itOpen the mapThe three steps, in order
Submit a beforeUdig enquiry
beforeUdig is a free online service that acts as a single point of contact for asset owners who have joined it. One enquiry reaches all of them, which makes it the fastest first move.
Roughly 118 of the 251 operators in this directory route their locate requests through it.
Contact the operators it doesn't cover
Membership is voluntary. beforeUdig publishes a list of known non-members, notes that the list is not exhaustive, and tells excavators that identifying non-member assets on their worksite is their own responsibility.
That is the step this site exists for. The operators are listed further down, region by region.
Have the services located and marked
WorkSafe's guidance is to get a qualified person to locate services using ground penetrating radar, hydro-excavation or similar, and to mark out the type of service, the direction it runs and its depth. Confirm each owner's preferred technique for uncovering their asset before you start, and use non-conductive tools where possible.
Plans tell you roughly where to look. Only a locate tells you where the asset is.
The operators a beforeUdig enquiry won't cover
beforeUdig returns plans from asset owners who have joined the service. Membership is voluntary, and beforeUdig is explicit about what that means for you:
“These non-member utilities will not be listed on the beforeUdig enquiry confirmation sheet even though they may have assets present. It is your responsibility to identify the presence of any non-member assets within your worksite… you are advised to contact non-member asset owners directly.”beforeUdig, Non-Member Utilities List - which also notes the list is not exhaustive
These are the operators in this directory that are not beforeUdig members. Airports, ports, hospitals, campuses, irrigation schemes and a number of councils all run networks that an enquiry will not return. Open any of them for a phone number and a locate-request link.
Nationwide
Northland
7 operators
Auckland
11 operators
Waikato
11 operators
Bay of Plenty
12 operators
Gisborne
2 operators
Hawke's Bay
7 operators
Taranaki
6 operators
Manawatū-Whanganui
4 operators
Wellington
9 operators
Tasman
4 operators
Nelson
4 operators
Marlborough
6 operators
West Coast
2 operators
Canterbury
32 operators
Otago
17 operators
Southland
7 operators
When you also have to tell WorkSafe
Some excavation is notifiable work in its own right, separate from anything to do with utilities. WorkSafe requires at least 24 hours' notice before starting work where a person has to work in a space more than 1.5 metres deep whose depth is greater than its horizontal width at the top, and for excavation faces over 5 metres in vertical height that are steeper than a 1:2 slope.
If your job is anywhere near those thresholds, check the current requirements directly - they are the operator's obligation to get right, not ours to summarise.
A note on the “Guide for Safety with Underground Services”
A lot of New Zealand pages still link to this guide at its old WorkSafe address. That page now returns a notice saying the guidance has been removed as part of a website tidy-up of material that was outdated, superseded or folded into other guidance. The guide itself was originally published by the Auckland Utility Operators' Group and the New Zealand Water & Wastes Association, and copies remain in circulation on operator websites.
If you are working to it, check whether the version you have is current before relying on it, and use WorkSafe's live guidance on working near utilities and services as the starting point instead.
Once the ground is marked, know what the colours mean
Orange power, yellow gas, purple comms, blue water, green storm, red sewer - the full New Zealand markout colour code.
Read the field guideFinding it on your own property
How to find water mains on your property (NZ)
Where the public main sits, where your private pipe takes over, and who to ask for each.
How to get drainage plans for your house (NZ)
Two different records, two different requests - and most people only ever ask for one of them.
How to find the sewer line on your property
The lateral across your section and the main under the road are two different records.
How to find gas lines on your property
First question: is there a gas main in your street at all?
How to find underground power cables on your property
The network cable is recorded. The one running to your shed almost certainly isn't.
How to find utility lines on your property
Six different services, six different owners, six different requests.
Who to contact, by district
Every operator serving a district, with phone numbers and locate-request links.
Common questions
- Is beforeUdig enough on its own?
- No. beforeUdig returns plans from asset owners who have joined the service, and membership is voluntary. beforeUdig states that identifying non-member assets on your worksite is your responsibility and advises contacting those owners directly.
- Is beforeUdig free in New Zealand?
- Yes. beforeUdig describes itself as a free online service for obtaining utility location information from its member asset owners.
- Do I have to notify WorkSafe before excavating?
- Some excavation work is notifiable. WorkSafe requires at least 24 hours' notice for work where a person has to work in a space more than 1.5 metres deep whose depth is greater than its horizontal width at the top, and for faces over 5 metres high steeper than a 1:2 slope.
- How long before digging should I request plans?
- Allow time for every operator to respond, not just the fastest. WorkSafe's guidance is to identify services at the design stage so there is enough time and resource to locate them before other work begins.
- Are the plans I get back accurate enough to dig from?
- No. Plans give an indicative alignment. WorkSafe's guidance is to have a qualified person locate and mark out services on the ground, showing type, direction and depth, before ground is broken.
Start with who serves your worksite.
Pin the address and UtilityFinder lists every operator whose network reaches it - members and non-members alike - with contact details and locate-request links in one place.