4.45.010 Construction, repair, maintenance, and excavation in public streets.
A. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation, municipality, or other entity hereinafter called the “contractor” or “applicant” to tunnel, to make any excavation, or to perform any other work in any road, street, alley or other public easement or right-of-way in a borough road service area, without having first obtained a permit as is herein required, or without complying with the provisions of this chapter, or in a manner which is in violation of or at variance with the terms of any such permit.
B. Application for such permit shall be made to the resource management officer, or authorized representative, on forms prescribed, and shall:
1. Describe the location of the intended excavation or tunnel and the size thereof;
2. Describe the purpose therefor;
3. List the name and address of the person, firm, corporation, municipality, or other entity doing the actual excavating work and the name and address of the person, firm, corporation, municipality, or other entity for whom the work is being done;
4. Describe a plan for controlling and directing traffic during the excavation;
5. Contain a provision that all work is being done at the applicant’s risk, and that the applicant realizes there may be substantial risk of damage to buried utilities and to third parties who may be injured;
6. State that the borough has not supplied information as to the location of underground utilities, or if it has that such information is only approximate and not all-inclusive;
7. Contain an agreement that the applicant will comply with all codes, ordinances and laws relating to the work done; and
8. Include a certificate of insurance certifying that insurance will be maintained throughout the construction period in the following minimum requirements:
Comprehensive general liability insurance including products and completed operations, explosion hazard, underground property damage hazard, and contractual liability for limits not less than:
Two hundred fifty thousand dollars each occurrence for bodily injury sustained by one or more persons as the result of any one occurrence, $500,000 aggregate for bodily injury sustained during the policy year, and $250,000 each occurrence for property damage, and $500,000 aggregate for property damage during the policy year.
The borough must be added as an additional insured on the applicant’s insurance policy.
C. The applicant shall require all subcontractors performing work on the excavation to meet all the foregoing insurance requirements before commencing any work at the site.
D. The resource management officer, or authorized representative, may waive the requirement to furnish a certificate of insurance if the applicant has a current certificate already on file with the borough. The insurance requirement may be waived for driveway or access construction from land abutting a public road unless such construction involves damage to the existing road surface or foundation. Otherwise, the insurance requirement cannot be waived.
E. No permit shall be issued to any applicant until the applicant has deposited with the borough cash or a bond in an amount sufficient to accomplish the reconstruction hereafter required, as determined by the resource management officer or authorized representative. The borough may, at its discretion, accept other sufficient security for the performance of said reconstruction. Such security deposit shall be held by the borough until satisfactory completion of such reconstruction.
F. The requirement for security deposit may be waived at the resource management officer’s discretion in the case of:
1. Work to be performed by a contractor performing road construction or improvement work under contract with the borough or any agency thereof;
2. Work to be performed with the approval of the borough as a public service, without compensation;
3. Work to be performed which is deemed by the borough, in its discretion, to involve only minor damage to an existing road;
4. Work to be performed on a road which is scheduled to be resurfaced, regraded, or otherwise improved during the period immediately following the work proposed by the applicant;
5. Driveway or access construction from land abutting a public road unless such construction involves damage to the existing road surface or foundation; or
6. A public utility that has successfully completed work within the borough road right-of-way for the last three consecutive years.
G. The resource management officer may issue an annual permit for routine preventive maintenance, emergency, or trouble call services. Maintenance shall not include installation or construction of new facilities.
H. The resource management officer shall require a reasonable permit fee which may not exceed the actual cost to the municipality of the utility’s use of the public way and of administering the permit program. [Ord. 98-04 §2, 1998; Ord. 90-34 §2, 1991].