Somebody hit your line. The evidence has about four hours left.
Depth of cover, what it was bedded in, whether there was warning tape, where the paint actually sat relative to the hole. All of it stops existing the moment the trench is backfilled, and on a live outage that is this afternoon. We go while it is open, record it properly, and can make the repair with the same crew. From $150 a visit across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York.
When a third party damages buried utility or telecom plant, JWSR LLC goes to the open trench and records the physical facts before they are covered: measured depth of cover, bedding and backfill material, warning tape, facility type and condition, and the state of the 811 markouts with their distances from the excavation, all photographed with GPS, date, time and ground conditions. With it comes a repair cost buildup from the crew that does the repair. From $150 a visit across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, usually same day in northern New Jersey. We document and measure. We do not rule on cause or responsibility, and that stays with your adjuster or counsel.
Call before the hole is closed. Same day in northern New Jersey where we can reach it.
The short version
A dig-in costs you twice. Once for the repair, and again for everything you cannot prove afterwards. The second one is avoidable and it is almost always lost in the same way: the line had to go back in service, the trench got closed, and the only record of what was in the ground is four phone photos taken in the rain by a splicer who had a network down.
This is the other thing. Somebody whose day job is opening the ground turns up while the trench is open, measures what is in it, photographs it to a fixed standard, and prices the repair the way a contractor prices work. Then hands it to you and stops. The judgement about who is responsible is yours to make, or your counsel’s. Ours is the part that disappears.
What gets recorded, every time
The same list on every damage, in the same order, so a file from March and a file from November can be read against each other. Missing items are recorded as missing, because absent warning tape is a finding rather than a blank.
Depth of cover over the facility, measured
From finished grade to the top of the pipe or duct, at the point of damage and again at undisturbed points either side of it. This is the single number most arguments come down to, and it stops existing the moment somebody backfills.
What the facility was bedded and backfilled in
Sand, screenings, native material, rock left against the duct. Photographed in the open trench with a scale in frame.
Warning tape, and how far above
Present or absent, colour, depth above the facility. Absent is a finding and gets recorded as one rather than left out.
The facility itself
Duct type and size, cable count, conduit wall, whether it was direct-buried or in duct, tracer wire present or broken, and the condition of what is left.
The condition of the marks on the ground
Paint and flags still visible, colour, how legible, where they sit relative to the open excavation, and whether a white-lined dig area exists. Measured offsets rather than adjectives. Photographed from more than one angle before anyone walks through them.
The excavation that was going on
Its dimensions, the equipment on site, how the hole was opened, spoil placement, and how far the damage sits from the nearest mark of the right colour.
Everything with GPS, date, time and ground conditions
Including temperature, because a trench cut in frost is a different trench. Photographs carry their coordinates and timestamps rather than our word for when they were taken.
What the repair costs, priced by the people doing it
Labour, equipment, materials, traffic control, restoration and the return trip for permanent pavement. Built the way we build a job, because it is a job.
Two ways to use it
One crew, one call. We expose the damage, document it while it is open, make the repair, and restore the surface. You get the line back and the record in the same mobilisation, and nobody is asking a repair crew to do paperwork at the end of an outage. This is the version most people want once they have tried the other one.
Documentation only. Your crew or your contractor is already handling the repair and we come and take the record. We stay out of the way, the repair is not held up, and the file is taken by somebody whose only job on that site is taking it.
Either way we are on the clock against a backhoe and a backfill, which is the reason this service is priced and dispatched like emergency work rather than like an inspection.
Who calls
ISPs and network owners with plant in New Jersey and no crew here. A hit in Sussex County when the operations centre is in Texas is exactly the situation where the record never gets taken, because the only people on site work for the contractor who made the repair. We already build this kind of plant for regional and national providers, so we know what the duct bank should have looked like before somebody put a tooth through it.
Water and sewer utilities and the municipalities that own the line.Services, mains and laterals, including the ones nobody marks. New Jersey’s One Call rules exclude storm drains and gravity sewers from the definition of an underground facility, which means a gravity lateral is nobody’s job to mark and the absence of paint proves nothing at all. That distinction decides a lot of these and it gets recorded plainly. What the colours do and do not cover is on what markout colors mean.
Adjusters and attorneys who need somebody standing in the hole tomorrow. You are not getting an opinion from us and you should not want one from a contractor. You are getting measurements, a photo log and a defensible repair cost, taken by somebody who can be asked later how they measured it and will have a consistent answer.
General contractors and excavators who have been blamed for one. If we are free and not already working the same incident for the owner, we will come and measure the same things we would measure for anybody else. Most of the time that is the whole request, because a contractor who called the ticket in and dug inside the marks wants the depth written down as much as the owner does.
What comes back to you
| In every damage file | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| Measurements with a scale in frame | Depth, offsets and dimensions photographed against a rule, so a number in the report can be checked against the picture it came from. |
| GPS coordinates on every frame | So there is no argument about which crossing, or which end of it. |
| Date, time and ground conditions | Sequence is what settles these, and frost, rain and standing water all change what a trench means. |
| A repair cost buildup | Labour, equipment, materials, traffic control, restoration and the return trip for permanent pavement, priced as work rather than estimated at it. |
| What we could not see | The section most reports leave out. If the trench was partly closed before we arrived, or the marks were already walked through, that is in the file. |
Back the same day where we can, because the people waiting on it are usually waiting on it now. If you run a system that wants the photographs in a particular shape, say so at the start. Getting field documentation into somebody else’s process is a solved problem and not worth making difficult.
All of it runs through TrackOver, the field platform our own crews use every day. Photographs carry their GPS coordinates and a date and time stamp rather than our word for when and where they were taken, and every request carries an urgency level, so a live outage is dispatched differently from a walk-up.
What this is not
Worth being blunt, because several of the words that fit this work already belong to regulated professions and we are not any of them.
This is not an investigation into the cause of or responsibility for the damage. In New Jersey that is licensed work and it is not ours. We are also not licensed adjusters, not engineers and not a collections or recovery firm. We do not chase anybody for money, we do not take a percentage of what you recover, and nothing we send you is a coverage determination, a sealed engineering opinion or a certification of anything.
What we are is a working underground contractor who will stand in your trench before it closes, measure what is in it, and price putting it back. The limit is the point. Every one of these files eventually turns on a physical fact that only existed for a few hours, and the people who can recognise and record that fact are almost all busy on their own jobs.
Why us rather than whoever is nearest
We have been on the other end of this. JWSR digs for a living in the same ground your plant is in, under the same One Call rules, with the same markouts. That means we know what a legitimate hit looks like and what a preventable one looks like, and we know which measurements get argued about later, because we have been the contractor whose work was being measured.
Telecommunications construction at volume. Over 470,000 feet of conduit placed, 155,000 feet of service direct-buried and in conduit, 42,000 feet of aerial, more than 3,500 access handholes set and close to 5,000 fiber drops completed. When the question is what the duct bank should have looked like, that is not a guess here.
We can actually fix it. Own crews, own iron, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and active contracts in 7 states. A documentation service that cannot make the repair has to stand and watch the clock run out on your outage. We do not.
The underground work itself is on what we do, the network side is on fiber construction, and if what you need looked at is a site rather than a damage, that is site inspections and field verification.
Questions people ask
Do you determine who was at fault?
No, and that is deliberate rather than a limitation we are apologising for. We record and measure physical conditions and we price the repair. Stating the cause of a loss or who is responsible for it is regulated work in New Jersey and belongs to your adjuster, your counsel or a licensed investigator. What we hand them is the thing they cannot get later at any price: the ground as it actually was, before it was closed up. In our experience the file wins or loses on that, not on whose opinion is in the covering letter.
How fast do you have to be?
Faster than the repair. Depth of cover, bedding, warning tape and the position of the marks all stop existing the minute the trench is backfilled, and on a live outage that can be the same afternoon. In our home counties in northern New Jersey we can usually be on a damage site the same day. Call before the hole is closed, not after, because there is no version of this that works retroactively.
Can you just do the repair as well?
Yes, and it is usually the better arrangement. We are an underground contractor with our own crews and iron, so one call gets the line exposed, the documentation taken while it is open, the repair made and the surface restored. The alternative, where a repair crew and a documentation crew both mobilise to the same hole, costs more and tends to produce a worse record, because the repair crew is being asked to stop and photograph work they are under pressure to finish.
What if we only need documentation and our own crew is doing the repair?
That works too and it is a common way to use us. We turn up while the trench is open, stay out of your crew's way, take the record, and send it back. Your repair is not held up and your restoration crew is not doing paperwork in the dark at the end of an outage.
Will you work for the excavator as well as the plant owner?
For whoever calls first on that incident, and never for both sides of the same one. If a contractor who has been accused of a hit calls us and we are already out for the owner, we say so and decline. The measurements are the same measurements either way, which is rather the point of measuring them, but nobody should have to wonder who else got the file.
What does it cost?
From $150 for a documentation visit in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, moving with travel, how much has to be covered and how fast you need it. Repairs are priced as the work they are. We publish a floor rather than a menu because a single-duct drop in a lawn and a 6-inch main under a county road are not the same afternoon.
Is this an insurance adjustment or a forensic engineering report?
Neither. We are not licensed adjusters, not engineers, and not private investigators. Nothing we send is a certification, an engineering opinion or a coverage determination, and it will not substitute for a report that has to be sealed by somebody licensed to seal it. It is a working contractor's measured record of what was in the ground and what it costs to put back. Where your file needs one of those professionals, we will say so rather than let you find out at the worst moment.
Do you handle claims, collections or recovery?
No. We do not pursue money from anybody on your behalf, we do not run collections and we do not take a percentage of what you recover. We invoice for the visit and for the repair. If a claim follows, it is run by your people with our record in it.
What about aerial plant and poles?
Pole line damage is measured work with its own rules, so it has its own page: attachment heights and clearances read against the National Electrical Safety Code, an inventory of what is on each pole, condition and make-ready notes, with our own traffic control. That is on pole inspections and field surveys. On the ground side, JWSR holds active contracts in 7 states and has placed over 470,000 feet of conduit, so buried plant is home ground.
Do you cover damage to things other than telecom?
Yes. Water services and mains, sewer laterals, gas service, electric primary and secondary, and the private facilities nobody marks at all, which is where a surprising share of these start. New Jersey's One Call rules expressly exclude storm drains and gravity sewers from the definition of an underground facility, so nobody comes out to mark them and the absence of green paint proves nothing. That gets recorded too.
Rates and coverage last reviewed 2026-09-18. Pricing varies with travel, site size and turnaround, and the figure above is a starting point rather than a quote.
Line down and the hole is still open?
Call before it is backfilled. From $150 a documentation visit across NJ, PA and NY, same day in northern New Jersey where we can reach it, and we can make the repair on the same trip.
Call 862-268-2510