Lakeland, FL guide
Before you dig anywhere in Florida — a fence post, a landscaping project, a new footing — the service that actually covers the state is Sunshine 811. Here's what that means in practice for a Polk County project.
Sunshine 811 — sometimes referred to as Sunshine State One-Call of Florida — is the official, statewide underground-utility locating service covering all 67 Florida counties, including Polk County. It's a not-for-profit corporation established in 1993 following Florida's adoption of the Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act, codified in Chapter 556 of the Florida Statutes. Sunshine 811 processes roughly 1.9 million locate tickets a year and notifies approximately 1,049 member utility companies across the state — a genuinely large-scale operation, not a small regional service.
Florida law requires anyone planning to dig or excavate to contact Sunshine 811 at least two full business days before starting work. Once you call, member utility companies with lines near your project site come out to mark them, typically with paint or flags, before work begins. Underground gas, electric, water, sewer and telecommunications lines run beneath residential and commercial properties throughout Polk County, often at depths and locations that aren't obvious from the surface — striking one during a dig can mean anything from a costly repair and utility outage to a genuine safety hazard, particularly with a gas line.
Any project involving digging — a new fence post, a landscaping project, a new structure's footing, a pool installation, trenching for a utility line of your own — should start with a call to Sunshine 811 well before the digging itself begins. That includes homeowner projects, not just large-scale construction: a fence post hole is a small dig, but it's still a dig, and it's still worth the call.
The City of Lakeland folds Sunshine 811 notification directly into its own Non-Utility Right-of-Way Permit process — applicants must contact 811 at least 48 hours before starting any work in the public right-of-way and provide documentation to the city as part of the permit itself. That's a specific, real requirement worth knowing if your project involves both a right-of-way container placement and any digging nearby. Placing a dumpster itself generally doesn't require a locate, but any excavation-adjacent work on the same project — setting posts, trenching near the placement site — does, and it's worth handling both in the same planning conversation.
A renovation or landscaping project across Lakeland or the rest of Polk County that involves both a dumpster rental and any digging should have the Sunshine 811 call happen early in the planning process, well before either the digging or the dumpster delivery. Getting utility lines marked ahead of time can also help inform where a container safely sits on a property, since knowing where lines run sometimes changes the best placement spot.
We're not the utility-locating service ourselves, and we always point customers to Sunshine 811 directly for that part of any project. But if your job involves both digging and debris removal — a renovation, a fence replacement, a landscaping overhaul — call (863) 457-3737 and we'll help you think through the dumpster side of the project while you handle the Sunshine 811 call on your own timeline.
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From this guide
Sunshine 811 is Florida's official, statewide underground-utility locating service, covering all 67 counties including Polk County. It's the real service to call before any digging project in Florida — established in 1993 under Florida's Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act.
Dial 811 from any phone in Florida, or call (800) 432-4770. Florida law requires notification at least two full business days before you start digging.
Yes — any project involving digging, even a small one like a fence post hole, is worth a call to Sunshine 811 first, since underground utility lines aren't always where you'd expect them.
The City of Lakeland's own Non-Utility Right-of-Way Permit process requires applicants to contact Sunshine 811 at least 48 hours before starting any right-of-way work and provide documentation to the city — worth handling early if your project involves both a street-placed container and any digging.
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