220 ILCS 50/2.3
"Excavation" means any operation in which earth, rock, or other material in or on the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, power equipment or explosives, and includes, without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, augering, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, and driving but does not include farm tillage operations or railroad right-of-way maintenance or operations or coal mining operations regulated under the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 or any State law or rules or regulations adopted under the federal statute, or land surveying operations as defined in the Illinois Professional Land Surveyor Act of 1989 when not using power equipment, or roadway surface milling.
220 ILCS 50/2.3