Excavation and trenching - North Dakota

North Dakota is under federal OSHA jurisdiction which covers most private sector workers within the state. State and local government workers are not covered by federal OSHA.

Underground facilities

All underground facility operators must participate in a statewide notification center where excavators can submit notice of intent to excavate. The center then notifies operators in the area of the excavation so that they can locate and mark their facilities to prevent damage, interruption of service, or injury to excavation workers. The rules governing this process are found at N.D. Cent. Code §§ 49-23-01 through 49-23-07.

Lateral and adjacent support

Each coterminous owner is entitled to the lateral and adjacent support which that owner’s land receives from the adjoining land, subject to the right of the owner of the adjoining land to make proper and usual excavations for purposes of construction by using ordinary care and skill, taking precautions to sustain the land of the other, and giving previous reasonable notice to the other of the intention to make such excavations.

Landowners to fill abandoned wells, shafts, and other excavations

Any person owning or occupying lands in North Dakota upon which is located any abandoned or disused well or shaft must cause the well or shaft to be filled with earth or stones to prevent any possible menace to the safety of persons or property. Any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.