[Adopted by the Special Town Meeting 2-6-1962]
No excavation shall be made in any town street
or town highway or any street shown on an approved subdivision layout
in the Town of Orange without first obtaining a permit in writing
from the Selectmen and said Selectmen shall have the authority to
grant such permits on such terms and conditions as hereinafter provided
for the excavation and back filling of such excavations in any street
or highway and for the replacement and resurfacing of any highway
so removed for such excavation.
The use of power machinery for excavations,
by other than public service companies authorized to do business in
the Town of Orange, shall be allowed only by special permission in
writing of the Board of Selectmen or its agent. The permittee shall
at all times take all proper precautions to safeguard any sewer lines,
water mains, electrical conduits, telephone conduits, gas mains, gas
lines, or other appurtenances encountered in excavation and shall
properly maintain such installations so as to provide uninterrupted
service of the same. In locations where the use of power equipment
will endanger such installations, the work of excavating must be provided
by hand labor. Excavations must be made in open cut and no tunneling
will be allowed except by special written permission from the Board
of Selectmen or its agent. Trenches shall be braced and sheeted when
and as ordered by the Board of Selectmen or its agent.
All excavations made under permit within street
lines provided for in this article shall be back filled with bank-run
gravel or crushed stone or such other material as is approved by the
Board of Selectmen or its agent. Back filling must be done in properly
compacted layers of two feet for the entire depth of the trench, or
by rolling with sufficiently heavy equipment to assure proper compacting.
No muck, clay, frozen earth, or other deleterious material shall be
replaced in the ditch. All muck, clay or other deleterious material
shall be replaced with bank-run gravel or other material approved
by the Board of Selectmen or its agent. All materials removed from
the excavation not used for back filling shall be removed from the
site and disposed of by the permittee. All ditches within the travel
way of any street or highway shall be sealed immediately by the permittee
with a suitable patching material.
The permittee shall guarantee to maintain the
repaired excavation for a period of 60 days, when it shall be resurfaced
by the Town of Orange, and in the event it is necessary to make any
repairs to the excavation during this sixty-day period, this guarantee
shall be extended to include a period of 30 days from the date of
the repair work. The town shall not resurface excavations made by
or on behalf of any public service company authorized to do business
in the Town of Orange. Such public service companies shall resurface
all excavations made by or on their behalf in 60 days after such excavation
is made and shall leave the street or highway in as good condition
as it was prior to such excavation.
All excavations shall be properly protected
by barricades, danger warning signs and, during the night season,
by proper flares or red warning lights. It shall be one of the conditions
of the permits and the duty of the permittee to maintain these warning
signs and lights at all times that the excavation is open. In the
event that it is necessary to excavate across the entire width of
any street or highway, only 1/2 of the street or highway must be excavated
at one time and the same shall be properly restored for safe passing
of vehicular traffic before the remaining 1/2 of the street is excavated.
In the event of an emergency, when it shall become necessary to close
the entire street or highway the Police Department and Fire Department
shall be notified at once of the action to close the street or highway.
If the permittee does not abide by all of the
above stipulations and regulations the Town of Orange, by action of
its Board of Selectmen, shall have the authority to refuse said permittee
any permits for said work for any length of time that they deem necessary
in case of an emergency. If the permittee or any of his representatives
are not available, the town has the right to repair any defect to
eliminate any hazard or remove any emergency it may deem necessary
and permittee shall reimburse the town for any costs incurred in the
completion of the same.
[Amended 5-13-2009]
Each permit fee shall be established by the
Board of Selectmen.