[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of North
Andover. Amendments noted where applicable.]
For purposes of this bylaw, the definitions of "person," "poles
and overhead wires and associated overhead structures" and "utility"
shall be the same definitions as those set forth in MGL c. 166, § 22A.
A plan to coordinate the implementation of the utility-specific
plans required by this underground bylaw. In the event that the utilities
and the Town are not able to reach agreement on any aspects of a negotiated
project coordination plan, the Town will use reasonable discretion
to establish an alternative coordination plan. The objective of this
alternative coordination plan will be to use a single qualified general
contractor to perform the excavation and civil work necessary for
the installation of all of the underground facilities, including cable
facilities, electric facilities, telephone facilities, and municipal
facilities, contemplated by this underground bylaw, as well as a proposed
formula for apportioning the cost of that qualified general contractor.
This alternative project coordination plan will assume that each utility
will directly install and energize its own cable and wire in the conduits
and manholes constructed by the qualified general contractor. In establishing
such alternative coordination plan, the Town shall be guided by the
objective of achieving efficient coordination among the utilities,
a cost-effective underground project, with the minimum disruption
of the public way.
Detailed specifications provided by the each utility regarding
the number and size of duct banks, the type and quantity of cable
or wire, and the number and precise specifications of manholes and
hand holes, the description and quantification of the equipment necessary
to construct and install customer's service facilities, and all
other specifications regarding all other facilities necessary to replace
overhead service in the area of the community covered by this bylaw
with underground service, all prepared in sufficient detail to be
included in a request for bid for a qualified general contractor.
When reporting the cost of demolition or construction per
linear foot, the cost should be reported per linear foot of the overhead
or underground system. For example, the 1,000 feet of overhead or
underground facilities that are located on 1,000 feet of one side
of a public way would be reported as 1,000 feet of overhead facilities
or underground facilities removed or constructed. If a particular
utility has two lines or two conduits on a given set of poles or in
a given duct bank, and therefore 2,000 feet of overhead wire or underground
wire in this one-thousand-foot span of the public way, the cost per
linear foot must be reported using the 1,000 feet of the public way
as the denominator, and must not be reported using the 2,000 feet
of wire as the denominator.
The facilities required to connect a customer's building
or structure to the underground service mandated by this bylaw, which
customer's service facilities are more specifically defined in
MGL c. 166, § 22I.
The direct cost of construction labor, construction materials,
and construction equipment used to implement the demolition and construction
mandated by this bylaw. This shall include the direct cost of construction
labor, construction materials, and construction equipment used to
install the customer's service facilities defined by MGL c. 166,
§ 22I. Direct costs of demolition and construction shall
also include the following costs:
The direct cost of completing an "existing conditions plan,"
to the extent such cost is incurred at the request of the Town in
order to expedite the schedule for the underground project, or incurred
directly by the Town in order to expedite said schedule, and then
reimbursed by the utility.
Interest on any amounts spent for such direct costs in excess of the two-percent annual expenditure required by § 175-5A of this bylaw, to the extent such excess expenditure is directly associated with an effort to expedite the actual construction schedule at the request of the Town.
The direct cost of any communication ducts installed at the
request of the Town, which communication ducts are to be reserved
municipal use.
The Town will review the coordination plans that are included
in the cable company plan, electric company plan, and telephone company
plan filed with the Board of Selectmen pursuant to this bylaw. The
Town will host a project coordination meeting to be attended by representatives
of the Town and each of said utilities, and use reasonable efforts
to negotiate a project coordination plan that is acceptable to each
of said utilities and the Town. The objective of this negotiated coordination
plan will be to use a single qualified general contractor to perform
the excavation and civil work necessary for the installation of all
of the underground facilities, including cable facilities, electric
facilities, telephone facilities, and municipal facilities, contemplated
by this underground bylaw, as well as a proposed formula for apportioning
the cost of that qualified general contractor. This negotiated project
coordination plan will assume that each utility will directly install
and energize its own cable and wire in the conduits and manholes constructed
by the qualified general contractor. In negotiating such coordination
plan, the Town shall be guided by the objective of achieving efficient
coordination among the utilities, a cost-effective project, with the
minimum disruption of the public way.
The petition, timely filed, that is required by MGL c. 166, § 22D and § 175-5B(1) of this bylaw, relating to the permission to install underground facilities mandated by this bylaw. Such petition shall request permission for the shared use of common duct banks and common trenches by and among other utilities and the Town, or include a justification explaining why such shared use of common duct banks and common trenches is not possible.
The plan, timely filed, that is required by MGL c. 166, § 22D, and § 175-5B(2) of this bylaw, relating to the removal of that particular utility's overhead wires and associated overhead equipment and the construction of a particular utility's underground equipment to provide service to consumers in the geographic area covered by this bylaw. This utility-specific plan that meets the requirements of this bylaw must include at a minimum the following required components:
The company's specifications for the underground project;
An estimate of the total direct cost of demolition and construction
of the project, which includes the cost of installing customer's
service facilities;
An estimate of the total salvage value of the overhead property
to be removed;
A statement of the total company revenues received in the community
in the preceding calendar year, and an estimate of the total company
revenues to be received in the community in the current year;
An estimate of the total duration of the demolition and construction
project, assuming that the company allocates and expends 2% of such
annual revenues (plus the reasonable salvage value of the removed
overhead equipment) to the direct cost of demolition and construction
of that company's project;
A proposed coordination plan that describes a plan for utilizing
a single qualified general contractor to perform the excavation and
civil work necessary for the installation of all of the underground
facilities, including cable facilities, electric facilities, telephone
facilities, and municipal facilities, contemplated by this underground
bylaw, as well as a proposed formula for apportioning the cost of
that qualified general contractor among the various users of the underground
facilities constructed;
A statement that the utility will participate in good faith
in a negotiation conducted by the Town, that includes all of the utilities
covered by this bylaw, in which the Town attempts to develop a negotiated
coordination plan that is acceptable to each utility and to the Town;
A statement that the company's plan will be implemented
in a fashion that complies with any alternative coordination plan
that may be established by the Town;
Such plan must be filed no later December 31 of the calendar
year prior to the calendar year in which the first expenditures for
the direct cost of demolition and construction are required to made.
A contractor with extensive experience in designing and constructing
underground utilities in Massachusetts, as evidenced by letters of
recommendation from Massachusetts utilities that have contracted for
the services of such qualified general contractor in the past.
Annual statement, timely filed, that is required by MGL c. 166, § 22D and § 175-5B(4) of this bylaw. This annual statement must, at a minimum, include the following information regarding the removal of overhead facilities and construction of replacement underground facilities, completed by said utility in the prior calendar year:
Overhead facilities:
Customer service facilities:
Number of customer service facilities completed;
Street names on which customer service facilities occurred;
Direct cost of construction associated with customer service
facilities demolition and construction spent in any year prior to
the preceding calendar year, which amount was in excess of the 2%
of the standard defined in MGL c. 166, § 22D, and which
excess amount the utility is allocating as a credit to reduce the
dollar expenditures required by this bylaw for the direct cost of
demolition and construction in the calendar year that is the focus
of this financial report;
The dollar amount of the direct cost of demolition and construction
spent in any year prior to the preceding calendar year, which amount
was in excess of the 2% of the standard defined in MGL c. 166, § 22D,
and which excess amount the utility is allocating as a credit to reduce
the dollar expenditures required by this bylaw for the direct cost
of demolition and construction in the calendar year that is the focus
of this financial report;
No utility shall install or construct, except by way of replacement or upgrading of existing facilities, any poles and overhead wires and associated overhead structures upon, along or across any public way within the parts of the Town listed in § 175-3. Any poles and overhead wires and associated overhead structures installed or constructed in violation of this bylaw shall be immediately removed by the utility responsible therefor.
Applicability of § 175-2 applies to the following parts of Town:
A.
Any new public way approved by the Planning Board to the extent it
is exclusively situated in an approved residential or nonresidential
subdivision.
B.
Any way in which the wires and utility facilities are underground
as of the effective date of this bylaw.
C.
Downtown area: Main Street from Sutton Street to Merrimac Street,
including 200 feet from Main Street on the following side streets:
Waverley Road, First Street, and Second Street, all of School Street,
and on Water Street from Main Street to High Street.
D.
Old Common Area: along the former Essex Street from Academy Road
to Great Pond Road; along Osgood Street from Bay State Road to the
intersection of Andover Street. Along Andover Street from Academy
Road to the intersection with Chestnut Street. Along Massachusetts
Avenue from 200 feet northwest of the intersection with Osgood Street
through the Old Center to Salem Street and Johnson Street to Milk
Street and along Great Pond Road from Academy Road 200 feet to the
east toward Stevens Street.
E.
Those portions of the Lincoln Line that cross or are within the public
way of the Lincoln Line from Dale Street substation South East to
the corner of Salem and Foster, South West beyond Raleigh Tavern Lane
and from the Woodchuck Hill substation to the corner of Salem and
Foster Streets.
A.
Any utility presently owning or operating poles and overhead wires and associated overhead structures along or across any public way within the parts of the Town listed in § 175-3 on May 3, 1999, shall begin to remove such poles and overhead wires and associated overhead structures following the effective date of this bylaw in accordance with MGL c. 166, § 22D. In preparation for making the minimum expenditures required by this Subsection A, each utility covered by this bylaw shall file with the Board of Selectmen the petition as required by MGL c. 166, § 22 and by Subsection B(1) of this section, and also file the plan as required by MGL c. 166, § 22D and by Subsection B(2) of this section. In order to enable the Town to monitor compliance with this bylaw, each utility covered by this bylaw shall file the statement with the Board of Selectmen, that is required by MGL c. 166, § 22D and Subsection B(4) of this section. Any petition, plan, or statement filed by a utility pursuant to this bylaw must meet the minimum content requirements and timely filing requirements defined in this bylaw.
B.
Any utility that fails to remove any poles or overhead wires and associated overhead structures required to be removed to Subsection A of this section shall be punished by fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $5,000 for each consecutive fifteen-day period during which such failure continues; provided, however, that no utility shall have been deemed to have violated this bylaw, provided that:
(1)
If replacement facilities for poles or overhead wires and associated
overhead structures required to be removed will be needed in order
for a utility to continue its service, the utility shall, within 60
days after the effective date of this bylaw, petition the Board of
Selectmen pursuant to MGL c. 166, § 22 for permission to
install, erect, or construct under the public ways replacement facilities
for such poles and overhead wires and associated structures; and
(2)
The utility shall file with the Board of Selectmen a plan (which shall be consistent with Subsection A of this section), for continuation of its service, for their replacement with underground facilities; and
(3)
In each calendar year beginning with the calendar year next following
the effective date of this bylaw and until all such poles and overhead
wires and associated overhead structures shall have been removed,
the utility shall, in carrying out its plan, allocate and expend for
the direct cost of demolition and construction (over and above the
reasonable value of salvage) an amount which shall not be less than
2% of its gross revenues derived during the next preceding calendar
year from its customers in the Town of North Andover; and
(4)
The utility shall, on or before the last day of March in each year,
file with the Board of Selectmen a statement signed under the penalties
of perjury, by its treasurer, setting forth in detail the amounts
spent by the utility during the immediately preceding calendar year
in carrying out its plan; the purposes for which such expenditures
were made; the gross revenues derived from its customers in the Town
during the immediately preceding calendar year; provided, however,
that no utility which enters into a cooperation agreement under MGL
c. 166, § 22E shall be deemed to have violated this bylaw
during the term such payments are to be made, so long as said utility
shall not be in default of said cooperation agreement.
C.
Notwithstanding the effective date of this bylaw, any utility may,
in its sole discretion, cooperate with the Town's plans for early
construction and may commence the removal of its poles, overhead wires
and associated overhead structures and proceed to perform the undergrounding
work following this bylaw's adoption and prior to its effective
date. Any such early cooperation by any utility will be subject to
the utility's rights to recover its expenditures and impose and
collect a billing surcharge under MGL c. 166, §§ 22D
and 22M.
Any utility providing underground replacement facilities pursuant to this bylaw shall also install customer's service facilities as defined by MGL c. 166, § 22I. Such installation of customer's service facilities shall be incorporated into the plan filed with Board of Selectmen pursuant to § 175-5B(2) of this bylaw, and the cost associated with such installation of customer's service facilities shall be included in the report of direct cost of demolition and construction reported to the Board of Selectmen pursuant to § 175-5B(4) of this bylaw. It is the intent of this section that the cost of the installation of customer's service facilities shall be reimbursed to the utility through the two-percent surcharge contemplated by MGL c. 166, § 22D.
If any provision of this bylaw is determined to be invalid,
such determination shall not affect the validity of the other provisions
of this bylaw, which other provisions shall remain in full force and
effect.
