Anderson Municipal Code Ch. 12.20 Excavations

The provisions of this chapter apply only to permits for the making of excavations, fills or obstructions.

(Prior code § 19.35)

The application for a permit for the making of excavations, fills or obstructions in any highway shall comply with the following requirements:

A. Each applicant shall state the location, dimensions, purpose, extent and nature thereof.

B. The time during which it is estimated that such excavation or obstruction will exist shall be stated.

C. When excavations are made for service connections, or for the location of trouble in conduits or pipes, or for making repairs thereto, the city engineer may waive the filing of a plat. Otherwise, each applicant for an excavation permit shall file with the application a plat in quadruplicate showing the highways in which the proposed excavations will be made, together with the exact locations and dimensions of the proposed excavations and any other details which the city engineer requires.

D. Each applicant for a permit shall file with the city engineer proof of the applicant's right to use the highways for the purposes set forth in the application.

E. Every application shall contain a statement, signed by the applicant, that if any tank, pipe, conduit, duct or tunnel placed in the excavation or obstruction for which a permit is issued interferes with the future use of the highway by the general public, then the applicant and his successors or assigns will at their own expense remove such tank, pipe, conduit, duct or tunnel, or relocate at a location designated by the city engineer.

(Prior code § 19.36)

The city engineer may make such changes in the application as to location, dimensions, character and number of the proposed excavations or obstructions as in his opinion are necessary for the protection of the highways within which it is proposed that the work be performed or for the prevention of undue interference with traffic or the safety of persons using such highways.

(Prior code § 19.37)

Except in the case of construction under contract with the city where a faithful performance bond is posted which guarantees to the county the repair of the highway, including construction financed in whole or in part by special assessments, each applicant for a permit, in addition to payment of the issuance fee, shall deposit with the city engineer a sum of money, in no event less than ten dollars, which is twice the estimated cost to the nearest five dollars of repairing the surface of the highway which may be damaged or destroyed by the proposed excavation or obstruction.

(Prior code § 19.38 (part))

The cost shall be estimated by multiplying the number of square feet of surface which may be damaged as shown by the application and plat and the number of inches of thickness, plus one inch, by such sum as the city council by order determines to most adequately represent the actual cost. Such order shall in no event specify a sum greater than twenty-five cents. The city council may change and revise such order from time to time. In the absence of any such order, the amount shall be ten cents.

(Prior code § 19.38 (part))

In lieu of making the special deposit required by Sections 12.20.040 and 12.20.050, the applicant may make and maintain with the city engineer a general deposit in any amount estimated by the city engineer to be sufficient to pay for the cost of permit issuance fees and expected repairs occasioned by future excavations or obstructions. The general deposit shall be held and used for the same purposes as the special deposit prescribed by Sections 12.20.040 and 12.20.050.

(Prior code § 19.39)

In lieu of making either a general or special deposit or to supplement a general deposit not sufficient in amount, the applicant may file an undertaking with the city engineer in a penal sum not less than one thousand dollars, executed either by two good and sufficient sureties or by a corporation incorporated for the purpose of making, guaranteeing or becoming a surety upon bonds or undertakings, complying with Section 1056 of the State Code of Civil Procedure, and by the applicant conditioned upon the payment of all fees and other charges required by this title which may become due because of any permits issued during a period of not less than one year.

(Prior code § 19.40)

If, in the opinion of the city engineer, any special general deposit or any undertaking is not sufficient for the proper protection of the public interest in the highways in which it is proposed to excavate or on which is proposed to place obstructions, the city engineer may require an additional deposit or require that the amount of the undertaking be increased to such an amount as he determines will be sufficient to protect such public interest.

(Prior code § 19.41)

The city shall deduct from any deposit made or maintained by the permittee:

A. The permit issuance fee if that has not otherwise been paid;

B. The cost to the city of refilling any excavation or removing any obstruction;

C. The cost to the county, calculated pursuant to the provisions of Sections 12.20.040 and 12.20.050, of resurfacing the highway; and

D. The cost of any inspection by the city engineer.

(Prior code § 19.42)

After making the deductions specified in Section 12.20.090, the city shall refund to the applicant any amount still remaining in the same manner as provided by law for the repayment of trust moneys.

If any deposit made is less than sufficient to pay all fees and costs provided for in Section 12.20.090, the permittee shall, upon demand, pay to the city engineer an amount equal to the deficiency. If the permittee fails or refuses to pay such deficiency upon demand, the city may recover the same by action in any court of competent jurisdiction. Until such deficiency is paid in full, a permit shall not be issued to such permittee.

(Prior code § 19.43)

If a person makes and maintains with the city engineer either a general deposit or an undertaking as permitted by this chapter, the deductions provided for in Section 12.20.090 need not be made.

(Prior code § 19.44)

If any applicant for a permit complies in all respects with the provisions of this chapter and with all applicable provisions of this code, the city engineer shall approve the application and the plat filed therewith. Upon approval, such application and such plat shall become public records.

(Prior code § 19.45)

When the city engineer approves an application for a permit, he may issue the permit applied for. Permits issued under this chapter are nontransferable.

(Prior code § 19.46)

The city engineer may cancel a permit unless the work therein permitted is commenced within sixty days of the issuance thereof, and thereafter, in the opinion of the city engineer, is diligently prosecuted to completion.

(Prior code § 19.48)

No permittee shall make or cause to be made any excavation; or construct, put upon, maintain or leave any obstruction or impediment to travel; or pile or place any material in or upon any highway; or install or maintain or cause to be maintained or installed any tank, pipe, conduit, duct or tunnel in or upon, or under the surface of any highway at any location other than that described in the application, as it may be amended by the city engineer, and shown in the plat filed with such application, or in any way contrary to the terms of the permit.

(Prior code § 19.49)

A. In any permit issued by him, the city engineer may specify what lights, barriers, warning signs or other measures designed to protect the traveling public must be erected by the permittee.

B. If the permit does not specify what lights, barriers, warning signs or other measures must be erected by the permittee, the permittee shall place and maintain warning lights at each end of such excavation or obstruction and at distances of not more than fifty feet along such excavation or obstruction from sunset of each day to sunrise of the next day, until such excavation is entirely refilled and resurfaced or such obstruction is removed, and every such person shall place and maintain barriers not less than three feet high at each end of any such excavation or obstruction at all times until such excavation is entirely refilled or such obstruction is removed.

C. The upper portion of each of these barriers shall consist of a substantial sign approximately one foot high and four feet wide and on each side thereof bearing a sign complying with one of the following requirements:

1. Letters, not less than three inches high and neither yellow nor black, bearing the name of the permittee on a background of alternate three-inch black and yellow stripes. The stripes shall be at an angle between forty-five and sixty degrees from the horizontal;

2. Letters, not less than six inches high, bearing the word "EXCAVATION" or "OBSTRUCTION."

(Prior code § 19.47)

Immediately upon completion of the work necessitating the excavation or obstruction permitted by any permit issued pursuant to this chapter, the permittee shall promptly and in a workmanlike manner refill the excavation or remove the obstrution.

(Prior code § 19.50)

A permittee shall refill an excavation in the manner which the city engineer determines is most effective to accomplish through consolidation and enable the highway to be restored to a condition equivalent to that in which it was prior to the excavation.

(Prior code § 19.51)

If any permittee fails or refuses to refill any excavation which he has made or remove any obstruction which he has placed in any highway, the city engineer may so do and charge the cost thereof to the permittee.

(Prior code § 19.52)

Upon completion of the refilling of the excavation, the permittee shall so notify the city engineer, in writing, on a form prescribed by the city engineer.

(Prior code § 19.53)

Where a treated or modified subgrade or surface has been removed or destroyed, the permittee shall replace it to a thickness of not less than that of the surrounding or adjacent subgrade or surface, unless the city engineer orders that the repair of such treated or modified subgrade or surface shall be made by an oil and rock mixture, in which case the thickness shall not be less than one-half the thickness of the treated or modified surface or subgrade.

(Prior code § 19.54)

If, after the refilling of an excavation, the permittee fails or refuses to resurface that portion of the surface of the highway damaged by him, or if the city engineer elects to do such resurfacing, the city engineer may do such resurfacing. The cost of such resurfacing shall be charged against the permittee, except in those instances where the permittee's excavation is within an area of pavement to be immediately reconstructed by the county and the resurfacing of the excavation is an integral part of the general county improvement. The cost shall be computed as provided in Sections 12.20.040 and 12.20.050.

(Prior code § 19.55)

If a permittee fails or refuses to pay additional costs upon demand, the city may recover such additional costs by an action against such permittee in any court of competent jurisdiction. Until such costs are paid, the city engineer shall not issue any permits to such permittee.

(Prior code § 19.56)

Nothing in this chapter prohibits any person from maintaining, by virtue of any law, ordinance or permit, any pipe or conduit in any highway or from making such excavation as may be necessary for the preservation of life or property when such necessity arises during such hours as the offices of the city are closed, if the person making such excavation obtains a permit therefor within one day after the offices of the city engineer are first opened subsequent to the making of such excavation.

(Prior code § 19.57)

Every permit for an excavation in or under the surface of any highway shall be granted subject to the right of the city or of any other person entitled thereto to use that part of such highway for any purpose for which such highway may lawfully be used.

(Prior code § 19.58)