[Adopted 5-1-1962 by Ord. No. 10]
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
CONTRACTOR
Any person, firm or corporation doing business subject to these regulations, either as principal contractor or as subcontractor.
PAVEMENT
All surfaces installed and designed to dispose of surface water and to carry or guide vehicular or pedestrian traffic.
STREET or HIGHWAY
The entire width of any dedicated or otherwise legally acquired public highway situated in Wallingford.
A. 
No person, firm or corporation shall make any excavation, ditch, digging or otherwise alter, open or remove the surface of any street or highway in the Town of Wallingford until a permit has been obtained from the Town Engineer or his authorized agent. Application for a permit shall be made on forms provided by the Town Engineer and shall be accompanied by a sketch or drawing describing the work to be done. The Town Engineer may require detailed plans and specifications and other engineering data to be submitted with the application where he shall deem the same to be necessary.
B. 
The Wallingford Highway Department shall be exempt from this article.
C. 
No permit fee shall be required of a private contractor or contractors doing work for the Town of Wallingford or any department, agency or commission thereof when done under the supervision of the Town Engineer of the Town of Wallingford.
D. 
All other municipal departments, authorities, commissions, utilities or works shall be subject to this article, provided that, when any of the same shall make excavations when using their own work force and equipment, payment of fees for permits shall be waived.
[Amended 2-25-1975 by Ord. No. 198]
Applicants for a permit issued pursuant to these regulations shall pay a fee to the Town of Wallingford in the amounts, computed by measuring the surface area of such excavation, as follows:
A. 
Five dollars for the first 200 square feet of excavation or fraction thereof.
B. 
Five dollars for each additional 400 square feet of excavation or fraction thereof.
Whenever a permit has been issued and the regulations herein are not complied with, a stop-work order shall be delivered to the person, firm or corporation, or his or its representative. Upon such delivery, all work shall cease, and the permit shall be deemed to be suspended until the Town Engineer certifies that such violation has been corrected. The Town Engineer or his authorized agent shall be authorized to issue stop-work orders.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any provision of this article shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not more than $25 per day for each provision of this article thus violated. Each day of such violation shall be deemed a separate offense.
[Amended 2-25-1975 by Ord. No. 198]
A. 
No permit for excavating in any Town street or highway in the Town of Wallingford shall be granted until the applicant shall file with the Engineer evidence of public liability insurance coverage of not less than one-hundred-thousand-dollar liability for one person, three-hundred-thousand-dollar liability for one accident and $50,000 for property damage, and a performance bond in the minimum amount of $3,000 in greater amounts if required by the Engineer, said performance bond to be in an amount in relation to the quantity to be excavated as determined by the Engineer, all conditioned that the applicant shall backfill all excavations and restore the street or highway to a condition as approved by the Town Engineer as hereinafter specified and that, under said insurance coverage and performance bond, the applicant shall save harmless and indemnify the Town of Wallingford from any and all liability, damages and costs that may in any manner be incurred by the Town of Wallingford by reason of or in connection with the issuance of a permit for such excavation or by reason of any act or omission of the permittee, his agents or servants. All such bonds and insurance coverages required by this article shall be for the period of the calendar year, and renewals of evidence of such insurance shall be filed with the Engineer before January 1 of each year.
B. 
Contractors and public service corporations may dispense with the filing of a separate insurance policy and bond for each excavation by filing annually, with the Engineer, the proper evidence of insurance coverage and performance bond hereinbefore provided for; provided however, that an application must be made for a permit for each separate excavation. Evidence of insurance coverage and a performance bond shall be filed with the Engineer, in form and in companies or sureties satisfactory to the Engineer.
C. 
Any work not completed under this article after three days after the second notice, in writing, to the person, firm or corporation taking out a permit for the same will be completed by the Town and shall be billed to the person, firm or corporation taking out such permit. No further permits shall be issued to said person, firm or corporation so billed until the balance owed the Town is paid. All remittances shall be payable to the Treasurer of the Town of Wallingford.
[Amended 2-25-1975 by Ord. No. 198]
A. 
The use of power machinery for excavation shall be allowed only by special permission, in writing, of the Engineer. The contractor 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 excavation must be provided by hand labor.
B. 
Excavations must be made in open cut, and no tunneling will be allowed except by special written permission from the Engineer. Trenches shall be braced and sheeted when and as ordered by the Engineer.
C. 
No excavated material is to be placed on private property without written permission from the property owner, such written permission to be filed with the Engineer prior to placing excavated material on private property.
D. 
All excess material removed from streets, highways, Town properties or rights-of-way granted in the favor of the Town of Wallingford that is not required for backfilling excavations will be the property of the Town of Wallingford and must be removed to and/or disposed of at the site of the Town of Wallingford sanitary landfill, the entrance to which is located at the intersection of Ball Street and Pent Road, if the travel distance over the shortest public highway route is six miles or less. If such travel distance is greater than six miles, the excess material shall be removed to and/or disposed of at a location as the Engineer may direct.
A. 
All excavations provided for in this article shall be backfilled with bank-run gravel or other material approved by the Engineer. Material removed from the excavations may be used for backfill only on written permission of the Engineer. In all cases when the material used for backfill is that which was excavated from the trench, the backfilling must be done in properly compacted layers of six inches for the entire depth of the trench. No muck, clay, frozen earth or other deleterious material shall be replaced in the ditch. All muck, clay, frozen earth or other deleterious material shall be replaced with bank-run gravel or other approved material. When bank-run gravel or other approved material is used for backfilling, all materials removed from the excavations shall be removed from the site and disposed of by the contractor. All ditches within the traveled way of any street or highway shall be sealed immediately by the contractor with a suitable patching material.
B. 
All excavations within the street lines but outside or adjacent to the paved roadway or sidewalk area and on a vertical grade of two-percent or two-foot rise or more in 100 feet shall be backfilled as hereinbefore provided. Surplus materials shall be removed from the excavation area, and, to prevent wash, the excavated area shall be paved as a shoulder, in accordance with § 198-9, for erosion as directed by the Engineer.
A. 
In general, streets or highways are to be patched permanently with the same type of material excavated or removed.
B. 
In streets or highways having an oiled-gravel pavement, the trench shall be backfilled; over the backfill shall be applied eight inches of processed stone, which type shall be approved by the Engineer, and over the processed stone shall be applied a temporary asphalt patch, which shall remain for a minimum period of 30 days. When directed by the Engineer, the temporary patch shall be removed, and there shall be installed a patch of dense graded bituminous concrete in accordance with the Department of Public Works, Engineering Division, Wallingford, Connecticut, Standard Specification Number 11, Bituminous Concrete Cover Paving. Old pavements will be cut back to give parallel and perpendicular lines to both sides of the patch. Edges of old pavement cut for patching shall be sealed with materials to be approved by the Engineer to assure bonding between old and new pavements.
C. 
In streets or highways having penetration-type or macadam-type pavements, follow procedures as outlined in Subsection B.
D. 
In streets and highways having a concrete base or surface, the trenches shall be backfilled as specified in § 198-8 and sealed with a temporary asphalt patch. At the end of the 30 days, the patch shall be removed and the trench reopened and backfill brought to a level to allow for replacing the concrete base to the thickness of the original concrete, but in no case less than eight inches in thickness. The concrete shall be of a one-to-two-to-four mix and shall exceed the width of the trench by at least 12 inches on each side, with the extra width laid on virgin soil. Concrete placed in any pavement shall be allowed to cure for not less than 72 hours.
E. 
All excavations shall be properly protected by barricades and warning lights furnished and maintained by the contractor during the curing period. If the concrete is a base material, the top surface shall be of bituminous concrete or other paving material approved by the Engineer, with a minimum compacted thickness of three inches, properly joined and sealed to the existing pavement. The sides of all excavations and patches in pavements shall be cut in a straight line where joined to the old pavement. If the concrete is the finish paving material, the concrete shall be screeded and rubbed to the satisfaction of the Engineer.
F. 
Concrete paving shall be in accordance with the Town Engineering Department, Wallingford, Connecticut, Standard Specification Number 13, Concrete Work.
G. 
Curbs and sidewalks are considered as part of the pavement and are to be restored to their original conditions.
H. 
All grassed or open areas are to be rough graded, with boulders larger than six inches to be removed from the site. All lawned areas are to be fine graded with topsoil equivalent to adjacent soil and seeded as approved by the Engineer.
I. 
All other highway structures, signs, pavement marking, sewers or subsurface structures shall be restored to their original condition before the excavation was made.
All excavations shall be protected at all times by barricades, danger warning signs, and during the night by flares or red warning lights. Only 1/2 of the traveled portion of the street or highway shall be excavated or remain open, permitting safe passage of vehicular traffic on the remaining half. Under no circumstances shall an excavation or opening be made in the width of the entire street or highway, or in such a manner as to prohibited the safe passage of vehicular traffic without the written permission of the Engineer and the Chief of Police or Deputy Chief of Police. Such written permission shall be obtained in advance of such excavation or opening. The Engineer and the Chief of Police or Deputy Chief of Police may prescribe such conditions as they shall deem necessary to render such excavations safe.
The permittee shall guarantee to maintain the repaired patch during the life of the temporary patch and for a period of 120 days after certification of acceptance of the permanent patch by the Engineer. In the event that it is necessary to make repairs to the excavation or restoration of the pavement or patch during said one-hundred-twenty-day period, said guarantee shall be extended for an additional period of 60 days. The performance bond shall include said conditions of maintenance within its provisions.