(a) Responsibilities and Liability of Permittees. All persons to whom excavation permits are issued shall enclose all excavations which they make in the public streets with sufficient barriers and danger signals at all times; shall maintain sufficient lights at night; shall install and maintain additional barricades, signs and lights at both ends of the block if the excavation is made between thoroughfare intersections causing restricted travel or dead-end conditions; and shall furnish and install cones or signs to channelize traffic around a barricaded area to maintain safe traffic lanes. A permittee shall erect and maintain a sign on the site of operations, which sign shall display the name, address and telephone number of the person responsible for work authorized by the permit. A permittee shall take all necessary precautions to guard the public against accidents from the beginning of the work to its completion.
Permittees shall make excavations only on the condition that they are liable for all damages that may result from prosecution against the City in consequence of any accident to persons, animals, vehicles, conduits or property of any kind, and permittees shall also be liable to the City on their cash deposit for any such accident.
(b) Bracing. The sides of all trenches and ditches that are six feet or more in depth, of all trenches and ditches in or near treacherous soil, and of all trenches and ditches near buildings, shall be braced to prevent caving or injury to the adjoining premises. The party excavating and his or her bondsmen shall be liable to the City for all damage arising by reason of neglect or carelessness in this respect.
(c) Standards of Workmanship in Excavating and Refilling. All excavating and refilling shall be done and in such a manner as may be directed by the Director of Buildings or his or her authorized representative, and all curbing, paving, guttering or macadamizing shall be done by persons who are experienced in such work and fully qualified to do it in a proper and substantial manner.
No refilling under curbing, paving, guttering or macadamizing shall be replaced or renewed except in the immediate presence of and under the direction of the Director of Buildings or his or her authorized representative.
Any directions that may be given, either in writing or orally, by the Director of Buildings, by any other person entrusted with the supervision of such work, or by any person engaged in the making or refilling of any such excavation, shall be immediately obeyed. No person shall violate such directions or fail to perform the same.
(d) Adjacent Excavations. When one restoration is made adjacent or contiguous to, or merging in or close to, any other restoration, the party making the last restoration shall be liable for any violation of this chapter and for any settlement or defective restoration of the surface of the street at the intersection of the restoration.
(e) Removal of Pavement Before Repaving. All persons making excavations through and under concrete on the paved streets of the City shall saw and remove the concrete on each side of any dug ditch or opening to the width of twelve inches in order to make a solid foundation for the reconstruction of the concrete base after the filling of the ditch or opening.
(f) Maintenance of Traffic. All parties making excavations under this chapter in any of the streets of the City shall, at all times, be required to keep open good, sufficient, secure and unobstructed passageways for the safe passage of all vehicles and pedestrians, except that when unusual conditions exist, a thoroughfare may be entirely closed to public travel by special permit authorized and issued by the Director of Buildings. Approval of plans indicating excavations across the entire width of a public thoroughfare does not in itself authorize the closing of the thoroughfare, but authority to do so may be granted as previously provided.
(Ord. 1986-47. Passed 12-22-86; Ord. 1990-18. Passed 4-23-90.)