The Legislative & Ordinance Committee voted Monday night to continue its review, and revision, of the city’s ordinance regulating paving of trenches cut into city streets for repair and replacement on subsurface infrastructure.
Ward 2 Councilor James E. Brown Jr., chairman of the L&O, initially raised the issue with a motion calling for curb to curb paving after a street is cut for repair or installation of underground utilities.
At-large Councilor John J. Beltrandi, also an L&O member and a developer familiar with trenching paving requirements of surround communities, objected to Brown’s original motion, stating that the issue is not the paving, but the trench soil compaction process requirements.
Yesterday, Brown said that he brought the motion to initiate discussion of the issue that irks so many city residents, but that he would defer to Beltrandi , who has more experience with the issue.
“We do have a regulation on the books,” Beltrandi said Monday. “But the problem is that nobody is taking out permits to open a road. We should have a document, a paper trail.
“The state DOT (Department of Transportation) provides a diagram of a trench section and how to repair it, how to compact it a set levels,” Beltrandi said. “Something like that should be included in our municipal regulation.”
The opening of any road for repair or installation of underground utilities would require the municipal department or contractor to complete an application to obtain a permit. The process would require a permit fee and performance deposit which would be refunded after a 60-day period. Municipal departments would be exempt from the permit fee and performance deposit, but would still be required to pull a permit to document the location and date of the work.
“There are so many road cuts, that we don’t know who is responsible for a specific cut,” Beltrandi said. “The permit application means you own that trench for 60 days because deficiencies will show up in that time frame. By making this the city’s policy, and enforcing it, we will curtail a lot of these problems.”
“Since this issue came up, two city departments have made repairs to their patches on Meadow Street, which is now a whole lot better,” he said.
Beltrandi request the L&O to keep the issue in committee until he can further revise the existing city ordinance and add the DOT compacting diagrams.
“We need to revamp and make additions to the existing regulations,” he said. “We can include the municipal (department) exemption, but they will still have to take out paperwork, so we have documentation if there is a problem.”
