COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Digging in haste on a corner fence post hole last July, a Kansas City homeowner sliced right through a fiber optic cable two feet below the surface, interrupting phone service to 18,000 customers.

A couple of weeks later, another warm-weather fence post digger in Jefferson City carved into buried phone lines, forcing 911 calls to be rerouted, disrupting Internet service and automatic teller machines.

The arrival of spring landscaping and construction has utilities with webs of underground lines pleading anew for diggers to call a toll-free number before turning dirt.

Failing to call could leave the earth-mover liable for expensive repairs -- not to mention the scorn of neighbors suddenly missing their favorite cable TV show.

"We're trying to help them avoid not only the cost of fixing it, but potential tragic loss of life or injury," said John Lansford, executive director of the Missouri One Call System.

Using the number (800) DIG-RITE or (800) 344-7483, the system's call center in Jefferson City received about 600,000 inquiries last year about the location of buried phone, gas, electric and cable television lines.

However, Lansford said the number of calls received should have been 40 percent to 50 percent higher.

How does he know? "Because we hear about it after the damage is done."

The service is free and several dozen operators are standing by. A prospective digger dials in and provides the operator with details about the project location. These calls usually last from five minutes to seven minutes, assisted by the operator's broad database of maps, Lansford said.

Then the operator sends a computer alert to the participating utilities, which mark the ground above their lines -- usually with paint -- within two working days, or let the system know there are no lines around the proposed dig.

Lansford said a single call could avoid problems, such as the traffic disruption a few years ago south of St. Louis, when a contractor ruptured a 24-inch water line that sprayed across a highway, reducing visibility. Or the damage to a gas line by a bulldozer, reported only after residents of the neighboring Kansas City nursing home called 911 to report smelling gas.

"We have had some real doozies," Lansford said. "But there is never a dumb call to this number, so long as they call in advance."

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On the Net:

Missouri One Call System: http://www.mo1call.com/