No person or utility shall make any excavation or fill any excavation in any public way without first obtaining a permit to do so from the Town of Windham, Maine. This includes entrances to private driveways, which entrances are situated on public ways.
[Adopted 1-8-1991; amended 7-13-2010 (Ch. 210, Art. I, of the 1991 Code)]
No excavation permit shall be issued unless a written application is submitted to the Town (forms are provided by the Public Works Department). The written application shall state the following:
A.
Name and address of the applicant.
B.
Name and address of the contractor performing the work.
C.
Street address of the location to be excavated.
D.
Beginning date of the proposed work.
E.
Type of work to be done.
F.
Signed approval of all utilities with infrastructure in the area to be excavated.
G.
Dig Safe approval number.
H.
Signature of the Public Works Director, or his/her designee.
I.
Diagram of the planned excavation.
Excavation work must be started no later than 30 days from the date of issuance of the excavation permit. After expiration of the thirty-day period, such excavation permit shall become null and void. Notification shall be made to the Public Works Department on the actual day the work will begin. No work shall be done under the permit on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays, unless first approved by the Public Works Director or his designee.
The applicant shall be responsible for the protection of all public and private property. Before any work commences, the applicant shall notify Dig Safe and all utilities which have infrastructure in the area of the proposed excavation.
A fee set by the Town Council shall be paid for each issuance and/or renewal of an excavation permit.
A.
The Town Manager or Public Works Director may require the establishment of a performance guaranty prior to the commencement of any excavation work.
B.
The Town Manager or Public Works Director may require the establishment of a performance guaranty for completed repairs. The guaranty shall cover a period of one year from the date of project completion. The amount of performance guarantee shall be established by the Town.
For the purpose of this section, every excavator that works within the Town's right-of-way that requires a permit shall provide a certificate of insurance demonstrating liability coverage in the minimum amount of $500,000 or the limits established by the Maine Tort Claims Act, 14 M.R.S.A. §§ 8101 through 8118, as may be amended from time to time. Any such policy shall name the Town of Windham as an additional insured and shall remain in effect throughout the time that the work is being done.
The permittee shall maintain safe crossing for two lanes of vehicular traffic at all street intersections where possible, as determined by the Public Works Director, and safe crossings for pedestrians at intervals of not more than 200 feet. If any excavation is made across any public street, alley or sidewalk, the permittee will maintain warning signage and use flaggers as needed per the latest edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and maintain adequate crossings for vehicles or pedestrians. If the permitted work area within the street is not wide enough to hold the excavated material without using part of the adjacent sidewalk, a passageway at least 1/2 of the sidewalk width shall be maintained along such sidewalk line.
The permittee shall not remove any trees or shrubs within a public right-of-way without first obtaining consent from the Public Works Director.
A.
Prior to removal of bituminous pavement, the limit of the removal area shall be saw cut in a neat, straight line to the full depth of the existing pavement. The cutting equipment used shall be specifically designed for the purpose. It shall be capable of making a straight and vertical cut and shall minimize chipping of the existing pavement surface to remain.
B.
When two or more openings are made in sequence, 15 feet or less, edge to edge, between each adjacent opening, the permittee shall neatly cut and remove the area of pavement between these adjacent openings and patch it all as one trench.
A.
Utilities.
(1)
Sand shall be used to bed and backfill all underground utilities and shall be thoroughly compacted under, around, and to a minimum six inches above the utility.
(2)
The minimum sand fill shall be in addition to the minimum subbase and base gravel requirements in Subsection B(3), below.
(3)
Sand backfill for water services shall conform to Portland Water District specifications.
(4)
Sand backfill for natural gas, electrical, telephone or other utilities shall conform to the respective utility company specifications.
(5)
Compacted three-fourths-inch crushed stone shall be used to bed and backfill sewer pipes to a minimum depth of six inches surrounding the pipe.
(6)
Caution tape with locator wire or magnetic tape shall be placed at least two feet above all backfilled utilities.
B.
Fill standards.
(1)
Granular fill.
(a)
Granular fill material shall conform to MDOT 703.19, Granular Borrow, and shall contain no stones larger than six inches in diameter and no frozen material.
(b)
Granular fill shall be placed in eight- to twelve-inch lifts and thoroughly compacted with mechanical compactors to the bottom of the subbase.
(2)
Subbase and base gravel. Subbase and base gravel fill shall be at least 24 inches in depth and thoroughly compacted by mechanical compactors. The layers of fill shall meet the following specifications:
(3)
Base pavement. Base course pavement shall conform to MDOT Hot Mix Asphalt 19.0 mm. Base course pavement will be placed the full depth of the existing pavement in accordance to the diagram in Appendix A[1] and compacted so it will be flush with the existing pavement to create a smooth patch.
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is included as an attachment to this article.
(4)
Surface pavement.
(a)
Surface course pavement shall conform to MDOT Hot Mix Asphalt 9.5 mm for local streets and 12.5 mm for arterial, collector and industrial/commercial streets.
(b)
Surface pavement shall be installed in accordance with the diagram in Appendix A.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is included as an attachment to this article.
(c)
A minimum settling period of 90 days shall pass between the installation of the base pavement and the installation of the surface pavement. If a settling period of 90 days cannot be achieved prior to the Saturday following October 15 of any given year, surface pavement shall not be installed until the following spring. Spring season surface pavement installation shall not commence until April 15 unless otherwise allowed by the Public Works Director, provided air temperature is 50° F. or higher.
Nothing in this article shall be construed to prevent the making of such excavations as may be necessary for the preservation of life or property. The person or corporation making such excavation shall apply to the Town for such a permit on the first working day after such work is commenced. Before any excavation work is commenced, the excavator must contact Dig Safe and all utilities that have infrastructure within the excavation area.
No person or utility shall be granted a permit to excavate or open any street or sidewalk from December 1 of each year to March 31 of the next year, unless an emergency or special condition exists as determined by Town officials. In the case of an emergency or special condition, the provisions of § 204-12, above, shall apply.
A.
Prior to paving or substantially repairing any street or public highway, the Director of Public Works, or his/her designee, shall duly serve upon owners of property abutting on a street or highway and upon all corporations, persons, firms and public or private utilities occupying a street or highway a notice directing owners, corporations, persons, firms and public or private utilities to make sewer, water and conduit connections or other work as may be designated within 60 days from date of notice.
(1)
Extension request. If an extension of time is needed by an owner of property abutting on a street or highway or a corporation, person, firm or public or private utility for the installation of such infrastructure, the permittee shall make a written application to the Public Works Director within 30 days of the date of notice, explaining the reasons for requesting such an extension of time. The Public Works Director may approve or deny any or all requests for extension of the established time period.
B.
Emergency excavation request. At the expiration of the time fixed and after a street has been paved or repaired, no permit may be granted to open that street for a period of five years, unless in the judgment of the Director of Public Works, or his designee, an emergency situation exists which makes it necessary that an excavation permit be issued.
(1)
If the Public Works Director or his designee issues a permit to open a street within five years after that street or highway was paved or substantially repaired, the Director of Public Works may require the permittee to install bituminous pavement surface overlay the full width of the road surface on both sides of the cut for a distance of 20 feet from the furthest outside edges of the cut. If that repair overlaps the edge of a repair from a previous opening, the Public Works Director may require the permittee to overlay the full width of the road to the furthest edge of that previous repair. The overlay shall meet, at a minimum, the standards contained in Appendix A of this article.[1] The Public Works Director may prescribe additional depth and/or methods of restoring the pavement based upon the class of the street. Existing pavement within the overlay area shall be removed by grinding to a depth of 1 1/2 inches.
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is included as an attachment to this article.
The Town shall make such inspections as are reasonably necessary in the enforcement of this article. The Town shall have the authority to promulgate and cause to be enforced such rules and regulations as may be reasonably necessary to enforce and carry out the intent of this article.
This article shall not be construed as imposing upon the Town or any official or employee of the Town any liability or responsibility for damages to any person or property injured by the performance of excavation work for which an excavation permit is issued hereunder, nor shall the Town 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.
A.
Any person, firm or corporation who violates any of the provisions of this article shall be guilty of a civil violation and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $500. Each day that such violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
B.
If the work or any part thereof mentioned in the preceding sections of repairing and backfilling the trenches or excavations aforesaid shall be unskillfully or improperly done, the Town shall cause the same to be skillfully and properly done and shall keep an account of the expense thereof, and in such case, such person or utility shall pay the Town an amount equal to the whole of said expense incurred by said Town, with an additional amount of 50%. Thereafter, upon completion of the work and the determination of the costs thereof, the Town shall issue no further permits to any person or utility until it shall receive payment of said costs.
C.
Any person or utility who continues to violate any section of this article shall receive no further permits until such time as the Town is satisfied that the person or utility shall comply with the terms of this article.