CHAPTER 12.20
EXCAVATIONS
Sections:
12.20.050 Permit – Application – Notice.
12.20.060 Traffic control – Warning devices.
12.20.070 Restoration of service.
12.20.090 Depth of structures.
12.20.010 Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, and words shall have the meaning given herein:
"Applicant" is any person making written application to the City Engineer for an excavation permit hereunder;
"City" is the City of Quincy;
"City Engineer" is the person appointed by the Mayor to serve as the City Engineer;
"Excavation work" is the excavation and other work permitted under an excavation permit and required to be performed under this chapter;
"Improvement" is any public or private improvement, including the property of public utilities;
"Permittee" is any person who has been granted and has in full force and effect an excavation permit issued hereunder;
"Person" is any person, firm or corporation;
"Street" is any street, highway, sidewalk, alley, avenue, or other public way or place in the City. (Ord 19-538 §10; Ord 418 §1, 1970)
12.20.020 Permit required.
It is unlawful for any person to open, cut, disturb or excavate, or cause to be opened, cut, disturbed, or excavated any present or future streets, curbs, alleys, sidewalks, or City property in the City, without first having obtained a permit, in writing, from the City utilities superintendent or other authorized City employee. Verbal permission may be acquired at any time from the superintendent or other authorized City employee for emergency repair work or emergency maintenance work. (Ord 418 §2, 1970)
12.20.040 Permit – Contents.
The permit shall contain the name of the person who utilizes the permit, the place to be opened, cut, disturbed or excavated; the reason for the opening, cutting, disturbing or excavating; and is to contain the date when work will commence, and when the repair of the place opened, cut, disturbed or excavated will be completed, which shall be the same date for the automatic termination of the permit; and an agreement by the permittee to hold the City harmless from any and all damages to any person or property arising out of the permittee’s work; and contain an agreement by the permittee to repair and replace the surface so opened, cut, disturbed or excavated to its original condition and to guarantee the repair for a period of two years. (Ord 418 §4, 1970)
12.20.050 Permit – Application – Notice.
The permit shall be obtained more than seventy-two hours before the time of the commencement of the work and the permittee shall notify the Chief of Police forty-eight hours before the commencement of the work so as to allow the Chief of Police time to instigate traffic control. (Ord 418 §5, 1970)
12.20.060 Traffic control – Warning devices.
The permittee shall comply with all requirements of the Chief of Police as to traffic regulations reasonably connected to the safety, health and well being of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, necessary during the time of the work.
The permittee shall be responsible to see that sufficient barricades, lights and other protections are established so that any danger created by permittee, is adequately enclosed and the public is adequately notified of the danger. (Ord 418 §6, 1970)
12.20.070 Restoration of service.
Any person who has opened, cut, disturbed or excavated a street, curb, alley, sidewalk or other City property shall restore the surface to the original condition before the permit expires, or at the cessation of the work for which the permit was issued, whichever is sooner.
The permittee shall be required to maintain, in good working condition for normal traffic use, the surface over the street, curb, alley, sidewalk, or other City property until the permanent surface is replaced and for a period of two years thereafter. (Ord 418 §7, 1970)
12.20.080 Failure to restore.
If the permittee shall have failed to restore this surface, as required herein, to their original and proper condition upon the expiration of the time fixed by such permit, or upon the completion of the work allowed to be done under such permit, the City Councilman in charge of the streets, shall, if he deems it advisable, have the right to do all work and things necessary to do so. The permittee shall be liable for the expense thereof, and the City shall have a cause of action for all fees, expenses and amounts paid out upon such work; provided, that in any case, it shall be the duty of the permittee to guarantee and maintain the area disturbed for two years after returning it to its original condition. (Ord 418 §8, 1970)
12.20.090 Depth of structures.
No person shall, without written permission to the City Engineer, install any substructure, except manholes, vaults, valve casings, culverts, and catch basins at a vertical distance less than:
A. Streets:
1. Twenty-four inches below the established flow line of the nearest gutter.
i. If the flow line is not established, then the depth shall be at a minimum of twenty-four inches below the surface of the nearest outermost edge of the traveled portion of the street.
ii. Except as to telephone, the distance shall be eighteen inches, and, as to the Grant County Public Utility District, the distance shall be thirty inches.
B. Parkway:
1. The minimum depth of any substructure shall be sixteen inches below established sidewalk or curb when such substructure is at right angles to the parkway.
C. Other Public Places:
1. The minimum depth of any substructure in any other public place shall be twelve inches below the surface; provided, however, that the City Engineer may permit a lesser depth in special cases.
Nothing in this section shall impose a duty upon the permittee to maintain the specifications as required herein upon subsequent changes of grade in the surface unless the grade in the substructure interferes with the maintenance of, or travel on, a public street. (Ord 418 §9, 1970)
12.20.100 Urgent work.
When traffic conditions, the safety or convenience of the traveling public or the public interest require that the excavation work be performed as emergency work, the City Engineer shall have full power to order at the time the permit is granted, that a crew of men and adequate facilities be employed by the permittee twenty-four hours a day to the end that such excavation work may be completed as soon as possible. (Ord 418 §10, 1970)
12.20.110 Maintenance of drawings.
Every person owning, using, controlling or having an interest in substructures, under the surface of any public place used for the purpose of supplying or conveying gas, electricity, communication impulse, water, steam, ammonia or oil in the City, shall, when requested, file with the City Clerk within one hundred twenty days after September 21, 1970 a map or set of maps, each drawn to a scale of not less than one inch to one hundred feet scale, showing in detail the plan location, size, and kind of installation, if known, of all substructures, except service lines designed to serve single properties beneath the surface of the public place belonging to, used by or under the control of such person having any interest, and shall file with the City Finance Officer/Clerk, for review, annually at a time specified by the City utilities department, a corrected map or set of maps each drawn to the scale including all installations made during the previous year to and including the last day of such year; provided, however, that a public utility owner may, at its option, provide corrected atlas sheets at more frequent intervals. (Ord 418 §11, 1970)
12.20.120 Liability of City.
This chapter shall not be construed as imposing upon the City or any official or employee any liability or responsibility for damages to any person injured by the performance of any excavation work for which an excavation permit is issued hereunder, nor shall the City or any official or employee thereof be deemed to have assumed any such liability or responsibility by reason of inspections authorized hereunder the issuance of any permit or the approval of any excavation work. (Ord 418 §12, 1970)