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What a hydrovac operator needs from you before the truck arrives in Cambridge: a pre-dig checklist

A hydrovac truck is expensive to have idling. The jobs that go well in Cambridge are the ones where the locate, the drawings, the access, the permit and the disposal question were all settled before the truck left the yard. This is the list the operator works through, and what you can do about each item.

Last updated October 24, 2026 · Reviewed by the Cambridge Hydrovac team

The locate, and who requested it

Nothing starts without a locate from Ontario Dig Authority, the body formerly known as Ontario One Call. The request is free and required by law, and the standard is five business days for a single address and ten for multi-address or larger work areas. The excavator's obligations under the authority's compliance standard are the operator's problem, but they shape your schedule: request only for a dig within the next 30 calendar days, wait until every notified owner has responded, check that the paperwork does not conflict with the marks, and make sure the locate is still valid. Enbridge Gas locates are valid for 60 days from completion, and disturbed marks void them. On a contractor job the general contractor usually holds the locate; on a homeowner job the operator requests it. Either way, have the locate package, not just the paint, available when the truck arrives.

Plant drawings and private locates

The public locate stops at the meter. In a Hespeler or Pinebush yard that leaves fire mains, process water, compressed air, private feeders, fibre between buildings and the abandoned lines of previous tenants, none of it marked. On a residential lot it leaves the gas line to the pool heater, the electrical to the shed, the irrigation and the septic. The authority lists exactly these as needing a private locate arranged by the owner. What the operator needs from you is the best drawing you have, a walk of the site with whoever knows it, and honesty about how reliable the drawing is. Where it is thin, test holes stand in for it, and the daylighting count goes up.

Access: where the truck parks and how far the hose runs

• A parking spot within hose reach. Long hose runs reduce vacuum and slow the dig. On a working yard the spot is agreed with the facilities manager so forklifts and trucks keep moving; on a residential job it is the street or driveway.
• A route for the hose. A side gate that opens, a path that is not blocked by a parked trailer, and in winter a plowed route.
• A window. Plants in Cambridge often give nights or weekends; the operator needs to know that when quoting, since off-hours carry a premium.
• Pavement and plating. If holes are in asphalt or concrete, the operator saw-cuts first and plates at the end of the window. Say whether the yard needs to drive over the holes before the next visit.

Permits: the Highway Occupancy Permit and who holds it

If any hole or any part of the truck's setup is in, over, under, across or along a City of Cambridge right-of-way, which includes the boulevard, sidewalk and shoulder, the City requires a Highway Occupancy Permit, and its list of covered work names excavating and cutting or trenching. The City asks for ten business days to process a full road closure, five for a lane closure and three for work that closes nothing, with a certificate of insurance naming the City as additional insured and traffic control to Ontario Traffic Manual Book 7. Hespeler Road and other Regional roads are permitted through the Region of Waterloo, and Highway 401 is provincial. Who applies is agreed at quote stage; on most contractor jobs the general contractor carries it. Work entirely inside the property line needs no road permit.

The GRCA check on river lots

Much of Galt, Preston, Hespeler and Blair along the Grand and Speed rivers falls inside a Grand River Conservation Authority regulated area under O. Reg. 41/24. The GRCA's list of regulated development includes placing a building or structure, site grading, and placing or dumping material on a site or removing material from a site, and it gives a swimming pool, a septic system and a driveway as examples of projects that need a permit in a regulated area. The GRCA says a permit usually takes four to six weeks. Enter the address in the GRCA's Map Your Property tool before booking the truck; if the Regulation Limit layer covers the lot, that conversation happens before the dig is scheduled, not after. The Galt and Preston pages explain how often this comes up.

Water, and what you know about the ground

The truck carries its own water, and a job that needs more than one tank needs a refill source arranged in advance. Do not assume a fire hydrant can be used; hydrant use is the City's to control, so ask the City or offer a site tap. The other question is history. Spoil from a paved yard with decades of plant use may carry hydrocarbons or metals, and under Ontario's excess soil regulation, O. Reg. 406/19, soil from riskier sources such as industrial sites faces stricter planning and tracking before a reuse site can take it. Whatever the ground, the slurry cannot go into a catch basin or sewer under the Region of Waterloo's Sewer Use By-law 21-036; it is hauled to a facility approved for what it is. Tell the operator what the site used to be, and the disposal line on the quote will be right the first time.

What this means for your quote

Bring the operator these and the quote will be a quote rather than a guess:

1. The locate package or confirmation of who is requesting it, with the dig date inside the 30-day window.
2. Any plant or site drawings and a contact who knows the yard.
3. The hole count, diameter and depth, or the drawing they come from, and whether holes are left open, plated or backfilled.
4. Where the truck can park and the hours it can work.
5. Whether any hole touches the right-of-way, and who will hold the Highway Occupancy Permit.
6. The GRCA map result for a river lot.
7. A water source if the job is large, and what the site used to be.

Each item is a line the Cambridge hydrovac cost page describes as moving the price, which is why settling them first saves money as well as a wasted morning. Describe the job with as many of these as you have and the operator covering Cambridge will fill in the rest on the call back.

Sources

• Locates overview - Ontario Dig Authority (formerly Ontario One Call)
• Compliance - Ontario One Call / Ontario Dig Authority
• Transportation Corridor Management (Highway Occupancy Permits) - City of Cambridge
• Permits - Grand River Conservation Authority
• Before you dig - Enbridge Gas Ontario