Excavation Permit Tracking per Work Order: A Guide

When a job needs an excavation permit, the permit is the condition for digging at the work order’s site, not paperwork to file away. A late request delays execution; a license that expires before digging is finished leaves the crew working without a valid permit. That is why it pays to track each permit against its own work order rather than in a separate spreadsheet.

This guide covers the data to record, the hand-offs from survey to execution, license duration and expiry, the permit application letter, emergency permits, and how ELX tracks permits inside the work-order flow.

Why should excavation permit tracking happen per work order?

Excavation permit tracking per work order means every order carries its own permit data: whether it needs a permit, where the request stands, and when the license starts and ends. The work order is what moves between teams, from survey to permits, execution, quality and the achievement certificate through to the extract, so the permit belongs in that flow.

Balady lets entity representatives in project coordination offices request coordination of several excavation projects in urban areas before permits are issued. Execution, quality and the achievement certificate, however, are still handled one work order at a time, so every order needs to know its own permit.

• No digging without a permit: execution never picks up an order that needs a permit before its license is recorded.
• Stalled orders are visible: you see which orders still wait for a license, and since when.
• Expiry is known: every order in execution has a known license end date.
• Delays are documented: the request number and date are ready evidence when a stage runs late.
• Liability stays with you: MOMAH states that using subcontractors does not exempt the main contractor from liability for violations, so careful tracking protects the main contractor first.

Which data should you record for every permit?

A good permit record shows, without a phone call, what was requested and when, what was issued, and how long it is valid. The minimum fields:

MOMAH’s prerequisites for a new permit also point to documents worth keeping on the order, or at least within the permits team’s reach:

• Shape Files of the excavation routes.
• A site safety and security plan based on the traffic control guide, plus a traffic plan if a road must be closed.
• Commercial registrations for the main contractor and subcontractors, valid for the whole excavation period until the clearance certificate.
• Valid City Service Provider Classification Certificates, and proof that contractors are pre-qualified with the municipality.

For requirements, processing times and permit types, see our Balady excavation permit guide; for site safety, see excavation safety requirements.

How do you link the permit to the survey and to execution?

Permit work starts at the site survey, and the permits stage ends at handover to execution; the license itself stays valid until its expiry date. The survey (Kashfia) decides whether a permit is needed and records drill types, route lengths and site coordinates, which the permits team needs for the request.

1. The survey decides

   The survey team records drill types and lengths and marks “needs permit” yes or no. Orders that need none go straight to execution.

2. Prepare the request

   The permits team reviews the survey and work-order files, gathers the documents and sends the permit application letter.

3. Log the request

   Record the request number and date on submission; documented waiting time starts here.

4. Log the license

   Enter the license number, start date, duration, expiry date and municipality, and attach a copy.

5. Hand over to execution

   Relay the order to Projects or Connections by implementing agency, with the expiry date known to the execution team.

Orders may also return from permits to the survey for a second look at the site; flag those returns so they do not mix with new orders. In ELX, the survey distribution basket filters by “returned from permits”. Our guide to what a Kashfia site survey is covers the inspection itself.

How do you manage license duration and expiry?

Every license has a start date and an expiry date, and any delay in preparing the site or materials eats into its days. In March 2024, MOMAH announced new Excavation Licenses Regulations that set the period for general excavation works:

These periods apply to general excavation licenses; the regulations set other periods for other permit types, and the working reference is always the expiry date on the license itself. The announcement adds that coordination runs through Balady’s “Nasseq” service to avoid damage and duplicated works.

For a new permit, MOMAH lists 1–2 days of processing; fees depend on project scope, are calculated with Balady’s fee calculator, and are paid before the permit is issued.

Treat the expiry date as a deadline for the excavation, not for the whole work order:

• Count back from expiry: subtract digging and site-preparation time from the expiry date to find the latest day work on site can start.
• Match the request to readiness: if materials or crews are not ready when the license is issued, its days are spent waiting.
• Review expiry dates weekly: list the orders in execution with their expiry dates, nearest first.
• Act early on a likely overrun: check what current municipal rules allow before expiry, not after, and log the outcome in the permit’s notes and attachments.

How do you prepare and send the permit application letter?

The permit application letter carries the work order’s data to whoever files or approves the request. The more it draws straight from the order record, the fewer copying errors: a wrong order number, a different district, an incomplete work description.

The official request itself is submitted electronically only, through the Balady portal and app, by representatives of utility entities, including electricity companies, in the municipal infrastructure coordination offices. The letter precedes or accompanies that request; it does not replace it.

Before sending, check that the letter includes:

• Work order number, name and contract number.
• Branch, district, address and work description.
• Permit title and requested duration.
• Attachments such as survey files and excavation routes.
• The right recipients, with internal copies where needed.
• A final read, with the send date kept on the order record.

A shared template saves time and keeps correspondence consistent: write the formal text once, add placeholders filled from each order’s data, then review and adjust it before sending.

What about emergency excavation permits?

Sudden failures cannot wait for the usual request cycle. According to MOMAH, the emergency excavation permit covers cases such as land subsidence, electrical or telephone cable faults, and broken water, sewage or gas pipes.

The first 24 hours are critical: make one named person per shift responsible for following up the formal request with whoever files it, and log the notification time precisely, since the clock starts there. For running these orders, see our guide to maintenance and emergency work orders.

How do you track excavation permits in ELX?

ELX is a bilingual cloud (SaaS) system for electricity-network contractors, hosted and operated by Matrix. It runs in the browser with no servers needed on your side, and carries each work order from registration to archive. Permits are one of its stages, in the site survey and excavation permits module, with their own screen, team and time limit.

• Routing from the survey: if the survey marks that a permit is needed, the order goes to permits; otherwise to Projects or Connections by implementing agency.
• One permit record per order: request date and number, license number, start, duration, expiry, municipality, notes and attachments, with the work order’s no-objection number and an open or closed status.
• Required before relay: the order cannot move to execution until request, license, dates and municipality are complete; relay marks the license closed.
• Earlier files at hand: survey and work-order files open from the permit screen itself.
• Permit application letter: ELX fills the “permit application” template with the order’s data (number and name, contract number, branch, district, address, work description, permit title and duration). The user reviews and edits it in a rich-text editor, then emails it to several addresses through the mail server configured in settings; each template has default recipients.
• Distribution and alerts: orders reach permits directly or via a distribution basket; when a dispatcher assigns one from the basket, the assignee gets a real-time in-app alert. Stage changes also trigger a Telegram message, and WhatsApp when enabled, to users who can view that stage’s screen and have notifications on.

In work order management, the administrator gives the permits stage a time limit in days, counted from relay or receipt, and can require a delay justification with files before an overdue order is relayed. The dashboard shows permits orders within the limit against late ones; clicking the late slice lists them and who holds each. More in our work order SLA guide.

Permit data stays in the order’s history. The work order lifecycle report has a permit section with license number, municipality, request number and date, start, end, duration and status, and downloads as a PDF or opens for print. Users reach it from the “work order status” search in the header, by order number or name, and the unified attachments screen downloads every stage’s files as a ZIP.

Without an expiry alert, set the Projects and Connections time limits comfortably shorter than your usual license period, so late orders surface in lists and on the dashboard before their licenses near expiry. The limit counts from relay into the stage or receipt there, not from the license start date, and one number per stage cannot match every license, so treat it as an early warning beside the weekly review, not a replacement for it.

Maintenance and emergency orders follow a separate ELX track that skips the permits stage. It records the notice number and date and takes files with reference names, so attach the preliminary approval and the emergency permit request there. Following up the 24-hour deadline stays with the person named for the shift.

Request a demo to see the permits stage in ELX, from survey to handover.

What should a permit coordinator review every week?

Regular follow-up matters more than any tool. Use this list in a weekly permits-team review:

• Every order whose survey needs a permit is in the permits stage, or past it with a recorded license.
• Every submitted request has a recorded number and date, and none sits without follow-up.
• Orders past the permits time limit have a delay justification with evidence.
• Orders in execution are checked against their expiry dates, nearest first, and flagged to the crew.
• The license copy and supporting documents are attached to the work order.
• Any likely overrun has reached management well before the expiry date.

Mistakes to avoid: recording the license after digging starts, keeping the license number without its expiry date, and leaving correspondence in personal inboxes instead of on the order record.