(a) No opening or excavation in any street shall extend beyond the centerline of the street before being backfilled and the surface of the street temporarily restored.
(b) No more than 100 feet, measured longitudinally, shall be opened in any street at any one time, except by special permission of the Director.
(c) All utility facilities shall be located sufficiently ahead of trench excavation work to avoid damage to those facilities and to permit their relocation, if necessary.
(d) Pipe drains, pipe culverts or other facilities encountered shall be protected by the permittee.
(e) Survey markers or monuments of concrete, iron or other lasting material, set for the purpose of locating or preserving the lines of any street or property subdivision, or a precise survey reference point or a permanent survey benchmark within the Borough, shall not be removed or disturbed or caused to be removed or disturbed unless permission to do so is first obtained in writing from the Director. Permission shall be granted only upon condition that the permittee shall pay all expenses incident to the proper replacement of the monument. Any existing survey markers which are removed or displaced by any construction operation shall be reset by a surveyor licensed to practice in the Commonwealth, with such work being completed at the permittee's expense.
(f) When work performed by the permittee interferes with the established drainage system of any street, provisions shall be made by the permittee to provide proper drainage to the satisfaction of the Director.
(g) When any earth, gravel or other excavated material is caused to roll, flow or wash upon any street, the permittee shall cause the same to be removed from the street within four hours after deposit of such materials, or upon notice from the Director to remove such materials. In the event the earth, gravel or other excavated material so deposited is not removed, the Director shall cause such removal and the cost thereof incurred by the Borough shall be recovered from the bond the permittee filed with the Borough. All saturated soil must be removed from the surrounding area, as determined by the Director, and filled in with eight-inch lifts with 2A fill at 95% compaction before restoration is completed.
(h) The following regulations shall govern the use of safety devices around excavations:
(1) Every permittee shall place around the project such barriers, barricades, lights, warning flags and danger signs as shall be determined by the Director and/or the Police Department to be necessary for the protection of the public. Barricading shall be in compliance with the regulations set forth by the Commonwealth, Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Engineering, for the maintenance and protection of traffic on construction projects, and the handbook for work area traffic control, as amended.
(2) All trenching and excavation shall conform to the standards of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry for such work. Additional safety requirements may be prescribed by the Director.
(3) Whenever any person fails to provide or maintain the safety devices required by the Director, such devices shall be installed and maintained by the Borough. The cost incurred therefor shall be paid by the permittee.
(4) No person shall willfully move, remove, injure, destroy or extinguish any barrier, warning light, sign or notice which has been erected or placed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(i) Access to private driveways shall be provided except during working hours when construction operations prohibit such access. The permittee must notify property owners in advance whenever a driveway is to be blocked. Free access must be provided at all times to fire hydrants.
(j) Excavations shall be in two classes: that portion in the area outside the cartway and that portion within the cartway.
(1) For excavations in any area other than the cartway, excavated materials shall be laid compactly along the side of the trench and kept trimmed up so as to cause as little inconvenience as possible to public travel. In order to expedite the flow of traffic or to abate a dirt or dust nuisance, the Director may require the permittee to provide toe boards or bins, and if the excavated area is muddy and causes inconvenience to pedestrians, temporary wooden plank walks shall be installed by the permittee as directed by the Director. If the street is not wide enough to hold the excavated material without using part of the adjacent sidewalk, the permittee shall keep a passageway at least one-half the sidewalk width open along such sidewalk line.
(2) For excavations within the cartway, all excavating material shall be wasted and removed from the site. This shall be done at the time of excavation or after excavation backfill has been completed. If excavation material is left at the site until after completion of the work, all conditions stated in paragraph (j)(1) hereof shall be complied with.
(k) Work authorized by a permit shall be performed between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, unless the permittee obtains written consent from the Director to do the work at an earlier or later hour. Such permission shall be granted only in the case of an emergency or in the event that the work authorized by the permit is to be performed in traffic-congested areas.
(l) In granting any permit, the Director may attach such other conditions thereto as may be reasonably necessary to prevent damage to public or private property, or to prevent the operation from being conducted in a manner hazardous to life or property or in a manner likely to create a nuisance. Such conditions may include, but shall not be limited to:
(1) Limitations on the period of time of the year in which the work may be performed;
(2) Restrictions as to the size and type of equipment;
(3) Designation of routes upon which materials may be transported;
(4) The place and manner of disposal of excavated materials;
(5) Requirements as to the laying of dust, the cleaning of streets, the prevention of noise and other conditions that are offensive or injurious to the neighborhood, the general public or any portion thereof; and
(6) Regulations as to the use of streets in the course of the work.
(m) All materials used to restore openings shall consist of, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) Crushed aggregate. Crushed aggregate for surface restoration at various locations, as directed, i.e. gravel meeting the requirements of Section 350, “Subbase,” of the Penn DOT Specifications Manual Form 408, most recent edition, for single course gradation band option with one inch top size or approved alternative.
(2) Special trench backfill. Crushed stone meeting or exceeding the requirements of Section 677 of the Penn DOT Specifications Manual Form 408, most recent edition, for 2RC aggregate, Type A or better, material.
(3) Asphalt pavement. Eight-inch concrete meeting or exceeding the specifications as stated in paragraph (m)(5) hereof, with a minimum of one and one-half inch of ID-2A wearing course, meeting or exceeding the requirements of Section 420 of Penn DOT Specifications Manual Form 408, the most recent edition.
(4) Grass seed. Grass seed for surface restoration of all off-street, private right-of-way areas, which seed shall meet or exceed the requirements of Section 804 of Penn DOT Specifications Manual Form 408, the most recent edition, for Formula B materials of the following mix by weight, or approved equal:
Perennial Ryegrass (Pennfine or Manhattan) 20%
Pennlawn Red Fiscue 30%
Kentucky Bluegrass 50%
(5) Concrete. Class A, 6.0 bags/CY minimum mix for a compressive strength of 2,750 psi @ 7 days and 3,300 psi @ 28 days and flexural strengths of 500 psi @ 7 days and 600 psi @ 28 days. Any street opening on a concrete road must be cut joint to joint, one full lane, pinned, poured and at least ten inches thick with wire mesh, according to PennDot specifications.
(n) During the progress of the work, the permittee shall accommodate both vehicular and pedestrian traffic and shall provide unobstructed access to fire hydrants, and to water and gas valves. Gutters and waterways must be kept open or other provisions made for the removal of storm water. Street intersections may be blocked one-half at a time, and the permittee shall lay and maintain temporary driveways, bridges and crossings as, in the opinion of the Engineer, are necessary to reasonably accommodate the traveling public.
(o) The following regulations shall govern excavations in and around existing utilities:
(1) The permittee will be required, at his or her own expense, to protect, support and sustain all sewer, water, gas or service pipes and electric light, power, telephone or telegraph poles, conduits and other fixtures laid across or along the line of the utility, whether such facilities are public or private. Damage to any private sewer shall be repaired by the permittee.
(2) The Engineer, as well as the company or corporation owning any Municipal or utility company pipes, poles or conduits, must be notified by the permittee before any such facilities are removed or molested. In case any water or sewer lines, or any utility company, gas or electric facilities, including service connections and/or appurtenances, are damaged, they shall be repaired by the authorities having control of the same, and the expense of said repairs shall be paid by the permittee directly. Existing private sewer service lines which are damaged, disrupted or taken up by a contractor's operations shall be reconnected and restored to full service by and at the expense of the permittee. The permittee shall also be responsible for the maintenance of damaged sections of private service laterals for the full term of the warranty period.
(3) It shall be the responsibility of the permittee to ascertain and verify the actual location and elevation of existing pipelines or buried conduits in the path of the work before commencing an excavation.
(p) All excavations which are four feet or more in depth, which exceed any State or Federal regulatory agency's stipulated maximum depth for unshored excavations, or which are made in unstable material, such that shoring is necessary to facilitate proper and safe working conditions, shall be shored. All shoring shall meet or exceed O.S.H.A. or State Labor Department requirements. Shoring shall consist of timber or metal sheeting supported by a sound system of cross jacks acting against a sheeting whaler grid. As an alternative to shoring by sheeting, a permittee may employ an approved type of trench box of reinforced steel construction and workmen shall conduct work from within such box.
(q) An excavation involving the removal of bituminous or concrete paving in streets, private drives and parking area trenching situations shall be accomplished by sawing or cutting the improved surface at the edges of the proposed trench at points one foot on either side of the trench opening at ground surface. Sawing or cutting shall extend to the full depth of the existing surface. Where existing surfaces are damaged, taken up, undercut or unraveled by construction excavations operations or water breakages which extend beyond the original saw or cut marks for removal, the permittee, in restoring such bituminous or concrete surfaces to their original condition, shall re-saw or cut the surface to a straight and even line six feet beyond the furthest point of damage.
(r) When temperatures fall to 32° Fahrenheit, all grouting and concrete materials entering into the construction are to be preheated and used while warm. When any mortar or cement concrete work is carried out under freezing conditions, the heated area must be maintained for at least 24 hours or the installation shall be protected from frost by covering the same with hay, straw or a similar substance to a depth of at least two feet before auxiliary heat is removed. Where areas cannot be appropriately protected by covering with hay or straw, and where it is impractical to completely cover the work area with an enclosure and heat the work area to at least 40° Fahrenheit, the work shall be suspended.
(s) A trench shall be excavated along the lines proposed by the permit holder and approved by the Engineer. All trenches shall have vertical sides. No tapering of sides shall be permitted unless approved in writing. The width of the trench, unless otherwise approved, shall be six inches minimum and 18 inches maximum on each side of the utility pipe. The bottom of the trench shall be hollowed out so as to allow the body of the pipe to have a bearing throughout on the trench bottom. Ground adjacent to all excavations shall be graded to prevent water running in. Any accumulated water in the excavation shall be removed by pumping or other means approved by the Engineer prior to the placement of pipes or utilities and before backfill is begun.
(Ord. 1996. Passed 8-19-86; Ord. 2072. Passed 7-16-90; Ord. 2434. Passed 11-17-08; Ord. 2543. Passed 3-19-18.)