If any person desires to lay any pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors or do any other underground work in any street which is to be improved by special assessment, such person shall lay such pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors and install such other underground work within 45 days after the confirmation of the assessment for the paving of such street in case such assessment is confirmed during the months of June or July, and if such assessment is confirmed during any other month, such pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors shall be laid and such other underground work installed within 60 days after the date of confirmation of such assessment; provided, however, that where such assessment is confirmed during the months of November, December, January and February, such period of 60 days shall be computed from the first day of March following; and provided, further, that whenever the public necessities require it, the commissioner of transportation may, in his discretion, grant to such person a period of time, not to exceed 15 days, in addition to said periods of 45 days and 60 days hereinbefore prescribed, within which to lay such pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors and install such other underground work. If such street be improved by any other method than by special assessment, such pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors shall be laid and other contemplated underground work shall be installed before the date of the completion of such improvement.
If such pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors are not laid, or if such other underground work is not done, within the time aforesaid, then, and in such event, such person shall, except as hereinafter provided, lay or do the same between the lot and curb lines or in the nearest alley contiguous to such paved street during the period of five years from and after the date of the acceptance of such improvement in such street by the proper authorities of the city; provided, that nothing herein contained shall preclude:
(a) The laying of service pipes, service conduits, service wires or service conductors used in connecting lots abutting on such street with the pipes, conduits, wires or conductors laid longitudinally in such streets.
(b) The repairs to pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors or to service pipes, service conduits, service wires or service conductors in such streets.
(c) The laying of pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors, or the doing of any other underground work in that portion of such street which lies between and opposite the entrance to any alley in which such pipes, conduits, tunnels, wires or conductors are laid, or in that portion of any street which intersects or crosses another street.
(d) The doing of any underground work in such portion of any street that is not paralleled by an alley within 250 feet from either side thereof and where the space, unobstructed by trees or other underground work, between the lot and curb lines, is less than four feet in width.
(e) The prompt and complete compliance on the part of the various transportation and street railway companies with the obligations and conditions imposed upon such several companies by the terms of the ordinances under and by virtue of which each of them claims the right of operating cars within the city, and nothing herein contained shall be construed as a waiver, restriction or granting of any right or as applying to the right-of-way of such several companies, as defined in said ordinances, so long as each right-of- way is paved, maintained and kept in good repair, as in said ordinances provided.
In no event shall the space between the lot line and the curb in any block in which there is in such space any excavation of any character, be used for the installation of any underground work, excepting service pipes, service conduits or service conductors.
(Prior code § 33-7; Amend Coun. J. 5-4-94, p. 49718; Amend Coun. J. 1-14-97, p. 37762, § 18; Amend Coun. J. 12-7-05, p. 64870, § 1.9; Amend Coun. J. 11-19-08, p. 47220, Art. IX, § 1)