Once you start noticing the spray-painted annotations on the sidewalks of Tribeca, you start seeing them everywhere. Sometimes you see “ATT,” “RCN,” or “shallow cover,” but mainly the scrawls are indecipherable. (I’m understandably fond of the tag that looks like “Erik,” visible up and down Greenwich Street.) “The markings are utility markings made by contractors,” said the NYC Department of Transportation when I asked about them, hoping for a bit more—is there a color system? is anyone discouraging rampant overuse?—but always grateful for a response.

The gallery below is to how widespread the markings are, but since I assume most readers won’t look at them all (and at thumbnail size the markings are hard to see), here are a few of the more egregious examples.

UPDATE: A hearty thanks to Mike and Perrone for their explanations in the comments (although Perrone’s makes me want to move out of Lower Manhattan more than anything in recent memory).

From Mike:

These are actually required by law so they are official. if you search the internet for Code 753 you will see digsafelynewyork. Also these lines depict what’s under the street in an attempt to prevent people from damaging the utilities. and the colors do mean something.

And from Perrone:

The markings are required by Federal and State Law. The Law requires that ALL underground utilities must be marked out before digging to prevent damaging any one of them. Yes, believe it or not, there is there a color system! The color system is as follows:

yellow = gas

red = electric

orange = communication

blue = potable water

green = sewer

white = proposed outline of excavation

This is not overuse! This is reflective of the large amount of construction that needs to be done to maintain the underground infrastructure. Recall the 100+ year old pipes in the ground. They all need replacement. So lots of markouts will be needed for the next several decades to address our very old and vast underground infrastructure!

But can we not agree that some of the people doing the marking have a very heavy hand?