Street cut standards approved
New standards adopted earlier this week by the Hot Springs Board of Directors will prevent irregular and uneven street cuts left by contractors working in city rights of way, city officials said.
The heightened standards are intended to encourage less-invasive methods, such as boring, instead of cutting, or compel utilities to move their facilities out of city rights of way. The city said it permitted 478 street cuts last year.
“Anytime we get a street cut, that’s the beginning of the pothole with the first winter freeze,” Mayor Pat McCabe told City Engineer Gary Carnahan. “How are we going to mitigate that with this program?”
The 15-page ordinance replaced the three-page section in the street specifications code dealing with pavement cuts and utilities work in city rights of way. In addition to discouraging cuts, the new standards will require contractors to use higher-grade materials, submit repair and traffic control plans and post surety bonds guaranteeing their work for two years.
The ordinance was adopted with an emergency clause, putting it into effect immediately.
“The cost of that will be calculated on the front end, so we know the amount of the bond,” Carnahan said, explaining that backfilling the trench and putting an 8-inch slab between the trench and repaired asphalt will be part of the calculation. “We have to make sure that if something settles and that company won’t come back and repair it, the city can step in and do it themselves.”
Carnahan told the board earlier this year the slab will extend a foot on either side of trenches instead of the 9 inches that were previously required.
More than 200 of the cuts the city permitted last year were for work on its regional water and wastewater systems. Interim City Manager Bill Burrough told the board the new standards will be
applied with equal rigor to city contractors, preventing cuts like those on Broadway Street, where a depression in the middle of the northbound lane is the residue of repairs to an 8-inch water main.
“We will hold our own utilities accountable as we do any other utilities, whether you’re part of our water or wastewater departments or one of the private entities that do work within the right of way, we will hold ourselves accountable just as we do any others.”
Increased permit and inspection fees listed in the ordinance will offset the cost of heightened enforcement, Carnahan said, explaining that current fees do not reflect the staff hours required to ensure compliance. There is a $75 permit fee plus $75 for each additional city block or additional 400 feet, and an inspection fee 50 cents per linear foot for cuts outside of paved areas and $1 per linear foot for cuts in paved areas or sidewalks.
“Our inspection fees are probably three or four times higher than they used to be,” Carnahan said. “Our old fees were $30 for inspection, so when you have to go out and make four trips to inspect, financially you can see that was a bad deal for the city.
“We tried to structure our fees to more accurately reflect the effort we have to put into it to make sure it’s done properly.”