AgdaPkt 2013-01-14 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6.4.A. - Page 2 Although it has been the City's practice for the City Council to approve the City's Engineering Standards, this and the requirement for compliance with those standards are being codified and clarified in the new Article I. New Article II requires all persons and companies working in the City's streets and right- of-way to first apply for and obtain an encroachment permit. The encroachment permit will contain requirements for insurance, performance bonds, indemnification of the city, the time within which the work must be completed, how the work must be accomplished and that a sign identifying who is doing the work be posted at the construction site. The proposed ordinance will specify that companies who have their facilities in the City's streets must relocate those facilities at their own expense if required by the City. The ordinance requires utility, cable and other companies who install their facilities in trenches in City streets to plan the location of their work in advance, to cooperate by sharing trenches when possible and to work with the City to avoid cutting new streets. Cutting or damaging the pavement of new streets is prohibited for five years after the City has constructed or resurfaced the street. This is to avoid the problem commonly experienced by the City where a company cuts and damages new pavement within months after the street was reconstructed or repaved by the City. Studies have demonstrated that cutting pavement so damages the street that the life span of the street is shortened by years and that no matter how well the cut is repaired, it is impossible to restore the street to its previous condition without reconstructing or resurfacing the street to the same extent as was done by the City. Although this five year requirement will be new to Redwood City, many cities in the surrounding areas have such prohibitions. The prohibition does allow pavement cuts in emergency situations, i.e. an emergency which endangers life or property, interruption of essential utility service, work that is mandated by a government agency, and for service to buildings where no other feasible means of providing service exists. This part of the ordinance will not go into effect for six months after adoption to give utilities and other contractor's time to complete planned projects and develop their five year plans. Repair requirements are strengthened by providing the City Engineer with authority to require repairs sufficient to restore the street to its previous condition. Because such repairs, when done on an individual basis can be quite costly, permittees are given a choice to do the full repairs themselves or to pay a fee into a fund to be combined with other fee payments allowing the City to merge the work into one or more larger cost saving projects. The amount of this fee will be established by Council resolution which will be brought to the Council at a later meeting, together with the other fees adopted by this ordinance. The other fees are: (i) A non-refundable application processing fee (currently this fee is lumped together with the plan check fee); (ii) A plan check fee which may be a deposit with any unused fees returned to the applicant or for very complex projects, the applicant may be required to pay additional amounts because this fee will be the actual cost to the City to check the plans; (iii) An inspection fee, which will also be a deposit to cover the actual cost of required inspections; (iv) A security fee or performance bond to ensure that damages are repaired or to reimburse the City if the City is required to