The City Council may authorize any telephone,
telegraph, electric light or electric power company to construct and
maintain underground conduits, cables and wires for the conduct of
the business of such company, in such of the streets of the City as
the City Council may deem advisable, and to construct therein and
maintain the necessary manholes and house connections and to erect
and maintain distributing poles at the termini of the conduits and
at suitable distributing points and may give such authority under
such conditions, restrictions and limitations as the City Council
may impose, to be expressed in the license or permit.
Conduits shall be of suitable kind and construction,
such as the City Council shall approve, and the work shall be done
in a thorough manner and to the approval of the Superintendent of
Streets. The distributing and other poles shall be of such height
and other dimensions and of such form and material and so located
as to be satisfactory to the City Council and shall be subject to
its approval or the approval of any person Council may select.
The surface of a street shall not be disturbed
for the purpose of laying, repairing or removing wires or conduits,
or erecting or removing distributing or other poles, without a permit
from the Superintendent of Streets, indicating the time and place
of opening such streets and the time within which such work shall
be completed. This provision shall not be construed as requiring any
permit for the opening of manholes for the purpose of drawing in,
removing or repairing wires and cables.
When an opening is made in a street for any
of the purposes mentioned in the preceding section, the portion of
the street so opened shall be restored to a condition satisfactory
to the Superintendent of Streets and shall be kept in such condition
for one year thereafter, and if not so restored and maintained by
the company performing the work, the Superintendent of Streets shall
cause the same to be done at the expense of such company.
Any company authorized to lay, etc., wires by § 473-15 in laying, repairing or removing its wires or conduits shall not disturb or in any way interfere with electric light wires or any gas or water pipes or sewers, or pipe therewith connected, or any other pipes.
In case the City finds it necessary to construct
or enlarge sewers or other public works in streets where conduits
are laid which shall require changing the locations of such conduits,
the changing, when required by the Commissioner of Public Works, shall
be at the expense of the company owning the conduits, who shall forthwith
make such changes under the direction of the Commissioner of Public
Works.
Any company authorized to lay, etc., wires, etc. by § 473-15 shall remove its conduits to other locations whenever ordered to do so by the City Council.
A plan of the exact location of every conduit
or relocation thereof granted or ordered by the City Council or Commissioner
of Public Works and plans and drawings showing the manner of construction,
together with written specifications stating the details of such construction
work, shall be filed with the Commissioner of Public Works by the
company authorized or ordered to construct or change such conduits,
and such exact location or relocation, plans, drawings and specifications
shall be approved in writing by the Commissioner of Public Works before
any work shall be commenced on any street under any authority granted
by virtue of this chapter.
Any company referred to in § 473-15 shall commence the work contemplated by any authority granted to it within 12 months from the granting of the authority, unless restrained by process of law, and shall continue the work with reasonable diligence until suitable conduits have been laid in the location designated in its application for authority and duly granted by the City Council.
Any company referred to in § 473-15 shall not remove its conduits unless permitted to do so by the City Council.
Any authority granted by the City Council may,
after notice and hearing, be revoked or altered at any time, without
liability on the part of the City therefor. In case any location in
any street shall be revoked, a substitute location in some other street
that will, in the opinion of the Council, accommodate the service
shall be granted.
No permit shall be granted, or if granted, be
valid, to disturb the surface of a street for any of the purposes
contained in this chapter until such company has executed an agreement
in a form satisfactory to and approved by the Commissioner of Public
Works with the following conditions:
A.
In every underground conduit constructed by such company,
one duct not less than three inches in diameter shall be reserved
and maintained free of expense for the use of the fire, police and
telegraph, signal and telephone wires belonging to the City and used
exclusively for municipal purposes, and that the Fire Chief of the
Fire Department or any person duly authorized by him shall be allowed
access to such conduits at all times, and that the City shall be allowed
facilities and privileges in putting in and taking out wires equal
in all respects to those of such company.
[Amended 7-24-2017 by Ord. No. 17-1006795C-2]
B.
Such company shall indemnify and save harmless the
City against all damages, costs and expense whatever to which the
City may be subjected in consequence of the acts or neglect of such
company, its agents or servants, or in any manner arising from the
rights and privileges granted it by the City.
C.
In addition to the aforesaid agreement, such company
shall, before a street is disturbed for the laying of its wires or
conduits, execute a bond with surety or sureties, to be approved in
writing by the Mayor, in a penal sum of not less than $10,000, conditioned
to fulfill all its agreements with the City and its duties under this
chapter, and a new bond of like import may at any time be required
by the City Council, which new bond shall be a strengthening bond,
unless the surety or sureties on former bonds are expressly released
from further liability by vote of the City Council.
D.
The company will, as soon as its conduits are constructed
and ready for use, remove from the street along which conduits are
constructed all wires, except those which the Commissioner of Public
Works shall by a specific order permit to remain.
E.
The company will at once comply with any change in
its conduits, manholes or poles that the City Council may, after a
hearing duly appointed, order.
