Air spade found a buried utility line under a 60 year old oak

I was doing a root collar excavation on a big live oak outside Austin and the air spade hit something hard about 8 inches down. Turns out someone ran a gas line right over the root flare back in the 60s and it was completely buried under dirt and bark. The line was still active and the roots had grown around it like a cage. I stopped digging right away and called the utility company before doing anything else. Has anyone else dealt with old buried lines messing with their excavation work, and how do you spot them before you start?

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paigewood3d ago

Did you get the utility company to mark other lines before you started?