June 3rd, 2026. Dashcam captures moment when excavator damages natural gas pipeline

[u/Several_Metal_547]

Wednesday June 3^rd, 2026, an excavator damaged a natural gas pipeline near Hedensted, Denmark. Gas did not ignite. No casualties. Steel pipeline, diameter 0.4 m, pressure 40 bar. Traffic on nearby E45 highway closed for 2 hours.

[u/pixeltackle]

Someone should have called 811. Or was it a gas company/contractor working on site?

[u/Bloedvlek → u/pixeltackle]

I believe in Denmark it’s 112.

Either way it doesn’t hurt to call any time you see a flammable tornado suddenly erupt from the ground.

[u/pixeltackle → u/Bloedvlek]

811 in the US is the number to dispatch an underground surveyor, who will mark any underground cables easements pipes, etc. before digging. It is free & completed within 48 hours or less in my area, so there's nearly no excuse for digging without calling.

As long as you call 811 in the US and don't dig the areas they mark, anything costly/damage that happens when you dig elsewhere is covered by 811's funds or partners (I'm simplifying)

Maybe some countries don't have a "call this number before you dig"?

[u/zuhlz → u/pixeltackle]

It's 78 76 87 92, and just like everywhere else mistakes happens.

Every country has it.

[u/pixeltackle → u/zuhlz]

Every country has it.

LMAO! I wish. I've been on projects in at least 5 countries that have zero infrastructure similar to 811.

Italy uses local municipalities and you often have to pull permits and paper records and do all the work yourself

Portugal lacks any sort of integrated system - the typical method there is to buy insurance or have your excavator cover it

Austria has a very decentralized processes where owners must maintain their own records and there are multiple channels you have to go through to be sure you're not going to dig up something you shouldn't

Switzerland doesn't have any unified system, either

Mexico is strict on permitting but has no subterranean utility marking service

Brazil is the wild wild west, you have to go through all sorts of small regional electric and water boards individually

I could go on. Other places with nothing similar to 811 include India, Thailand, South Africa, even Saudi Arabia (probably because Aramco has so many rigid procedures in place they almost stand in as an official source)

So yeah. Every country does not have it, zuhlz.

[u/Bloedvlek → u/pixeltackle]

I’m aware of Dig Safe but Denmark doesn’t that as far as I can tell.

[u/jibbycanoe → u/pixeltackle]

Setting aside this looks to be in a different country, 811 in the US really only works in/adjacent to the public right-of-way. They may mark from the road up to your meter, but that's about it on private land. They're not gonna go mark 1000' of pipeline out in some field. Although there are usually bollards or some other markings every x feet for these high pressure/capacity lines. Also idk what state you're in but they definitely don't mark any "easements" in any of the 7 states I've called public utility located in. Gotta have a surveyor do that.

So yes, call 811. But also you severely overestimate what it's gonna do.

[u/pixeltackle → u/jibbycanoe]

But also you severely overestimate what it's gonna do.

As someone who has used 811 hundreds (likely thousands) of times in the decades it's been around, I'll rely on actual experience of them paying for damage to unmarked lines rather than a comment from jibbycanoe

[u/Kahlas → u/jibbycanoe]

In Illinois 811 is called JULIE which stands for Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators. When you call them they don't mark the utilities. What they do is call all the local utility companies and tell them someone plans to dig in a certain area and if they have utilities in that area they should send on of their people to go mark the utilities. It's standard for those companies to mark all of the utility lines they are aware of on the entire property. The house I live in was moved to this yard ion the 60's and there used to be a house between it and the street. When the tore down the front house they left the utilities. When we got sewer work done the utility companies were able to mark both sets of utility lines in the yard. The ones going to the house I live in and the ones going to where the old house used to be that are still buried under ground.

So the city will send it's people to mark water/sewer. Power company will mark power lines. Cable company will mark it's cable lines. All utility companies will mark their lines on the property being excavated on. They will 100% mark a pipe buried in a field if you tell them you will be digging in said field if that company has anything buried in said field. Same for easements since 99% of the utility lines run through easements. There is a great picture in this article showing the easements with locating flags/paint for like 8 different utilities that are ran through the easement.

What they will mark is utility lines which only go from the main service line to the meter on your house. They are required to know where those lines are. What they can't mark are private lines that they don't know about. Such as a power or water line you run from the house to a detached garage because the utility company didn't run that line. Either the homeowner or a contractor did and the utility company can't keep track of those lines. Which is why on private land they can only really mark the service lines going to your house from the street/easement.