Methods and apparatus employing a reference grid for generating electronic manifests of underground facility marking operations

A method for generating an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the method comprising:

• A) displaying, on a display device, at least one grid to provide a reference for a geographic area including the excavation site;
• B) acquiring user input from a user input device, the user input relating to a geographic location of the at least one physical locate mark applied by the technician to the ground surface at the excavation site to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site;
• C) adding to the displayed at least one grid, based at least in part on the user input acquired in B) from the user input device, at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one grid and the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark;
• and
• D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest.

At least one computer-readable storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed on at least one processing unit, perform a method for generating an electronic manifest of at least one physical locate mark applied to a ground surface by a technician at an excavation site prior to excavation activities, the method comprising:

• A) displaying, on a display device, at least one grid to provide a reference for a geographic area including the excavation site;
• B) acquiring user input from a user input device, the user input relating to a geographic location of the at least one physical locate mark applied by the technician to the ground surface at the excavation site to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at the excavation site;
• C) adding to the displayed at least one grid, based at least in part on the user input acquired in B) from the user input device, at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark so as to generate a marked-up image including the at least one grid and the at least one digital representation of the at least one physical locate mark;
• and
• D) electronically transmitting and/or electronically storing information relating to the marked-up image so as to generate the electronic manifest.