Hoping there is someone on here who can advise me of the current procedure and requirements to work on a highways adopted track and footpath that run off it. The track is apparently a byway open to all traffic(BOAT).
I am self employed and will need to dig a reasonable sized hole in the tarmacked junction between the footpath and byway to access a residential water service pipe.
If someone with current knowledge can advise as to what insurances, tickets, etc would be required and if it is possible to procure these as a self employed individual, I would be very grateful.
Hi Rhino. I would suggest you contact the “Highways Dept.” of your local council as they should be able to give you the required information. Good luck.
Are you sure the service pipe is your responsibilty? Normally, the water authority is responsible for water pipes within an adopted highway, although this being an adopted byway might complicate things. The WA (I’m assuming yours is South West Water) will have a definitive plan showing the ownership of its pipe network, so it’s worth checking.
In Scotland for small works the local council can issue a short term licence for you to work on the highway.
I work as a limited company in the oil industry 20 days a year but an office walla.
I use https://www.caunceohara.co.uk/ to get my company insurance through, give them a call and the should be able to provide cover but expect say a few hundred pounds but if a car falls in a hole that is nothing to the possible bill.
In this case it may be a similar price to get a local builder to do it as they already have insurance but you could wait weeks as they do not turn up to do the job.
In a lot of cases the water people are only responsible to the mains. Any tee off from there to a property is the property owners responsibility or in our case 4 owners joint responsibility.
Recently a burst 5 mtrs from the mains was done by the water authority under there small jobs fund ( at their discretion)as they do these works in order that it is done by someone with the knowhow.
Here there is a water company stopcock (and water meter) on the property line, inside that is the property owner’s responsibility, from the mains up to and including that is the water company’s.
As an ex highways manager (yes I know!) you will need permission from whoever the local Highway Authority is, to excavate in adopted highway (footway/carriageway) They will issue you permission under the New Roads and Streetworks Act, however you will need accreditation and public liability insurance. Who ever the authority are they should have something on their website or ring and ask to speak to a street works officer.
Thanks for your replies and my apologies for not getting back on the thread before.
Simple advice from Countryboy has been acted on. I contacted highways via online chat and waiting for a more in depth reply from a separate email sent to their prow(public rights of way) email address.
£5,000.000 of public liability insurance required - I checked out Hiscox and price for this is surprisingly cheap at around £135. I imagine I will hear about what ‘accreditation’ means in the reply email from prow with luck. Hopefully a self employed person like me will be able to get involved. If anyone can clarify what accreditation is likely to entail I would be grateful
The water service pipe situation is complicated as it runs more than 80 metres under the byway tarmac to the meter beside the main road. Just before it hits the meter it crosses the threshold of a footpath that runs off the byway at a right angle. The alkathene pipe was crushed by a tracked vehicle tarmacking the footpath. Once crushed this material splits very easily.
South West Water refuse to accept responsibility for the pipe even though it runs under a tarmacked track adopted by highways. I have no control over the vehicles that use the track and have done the damage. Not at all happy with the situation and exploring my options.
As redFR stated, in order to work on the " highway " you, or someone within the team carrying out the work, needs to have the appropriate accreditation. This is covered under the New Road and Street Works Act, which replaced the old Public Utility Street Works Act in 1991. There are several modules for accreditation within this, covering signing lighting and guarding, service location and identification, excavation, backfill and reinstatement. The reinstatement element is sub divided by surface type, i.e. Verge, modular, rigid, hot and cold lay macadams etc. There is also an operative card and a seperate one for a supervisor. Under the same legislation, both an " opening " notice and a " closing " notice are required to be given to the local authority highways department. This may be a vatialble period of time but the works need to be completed within that period with either an interim reinstatement or a first time permanent reinstatement carried out within that timescale. The easiest way would be to find someone that has the “ticket” who can be present on site during the works? If that person is offsite, the works should stop until they are present again. This is not a one day course but can take a week, involving both theory and practical assessment, all of which have to be achieved in order to gain accreditation. As said, easier to retain the services of someone with the correct ticket.
As Bettabuilda (had a set when I was a kid ) says you need to undertake a course to get accredited. I don’t know where you are in the country, but google for streetworks accreditation courses near to you. If you where to get the accreditation it would open up opportunities for you and must have if you work in the public highway. .Good luck.
I also had a "set " hence the name! I spent me entire working life in highways, starting as an apprentice mason & paviour, ( when it was a proper City & Guilds qualification ) progressing to general manager of a civils/utility company, latterly teaching the subject at an FE college before retiring I refreshed my RASWA card recently, just in case
Thanks again - looks like it’s back to school then:-)
Think I can remember bettabuilda - an intelligent version of lego. Probably why you guys ended up as engineers. I only had an old set of lego which probably accounts for me ending up as a computer programmer.
I had a burst pipe between the road and the house,not knowing what to do,I called my local water authority which is Severn Trent.They were very helpfull and arranged a contractor for me.As it was on my property I had to pay,but the bill I thought was very reasonable.At least I know it has been done properly.
Due to having to organise the change of use of our property we had to alter the siting of a dropped kerb to our drive. In order to do this we had to apply for ‘Permission to Dig’ from the Highways Agency and employ a contractor who was registered with them to carry out the work.
As I understand it, any work requiring digging of the road or footpath needs this whether applied for by the contractor or the property owner.
This was in the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council area and was to access an adopted street if this makes any difference.