Council meeting November 2004
Question: Councillor M. Baker:
"o ask the Manager what are the procedures for the following: (a) to allow the opening of pathways to facilitate repairs to water supply; (b) what form of temporary repair is acceptable to the Council; (c) what is the acceptable timeframe in which a permanent repair is undertaken by the Council's contractors; (d) who bears the cost of the final repair?"
Reply:
- The opening of roads and footpaths by the Council's Environmental Services Department is carried out on a needs/emergency basis in order to carry out repairs to water mains and sewers.
- Planned maintenance work is carried out in consultation with the Roads Control Unit of the Transportation Department.
- All temporary and permanent reinstatements should be carried out in accordance with the DOE&LG 'Guidelines for the Opening, Backfilling and Reinstatement of Trenches in Public Roads'.
- The Roads Control Unit maintains a database of all water and drainage openings in the County.
- The permanent reinstatement of these openings is carried out by the Roads Control Unit. The budget for 2004 is €504,000 for Water and Drainage Reinstatements and is funded by the Environmental Services Department. There is also €200,000 for reinstatement of defective footpaths adjacent to water and drainage openings available only for the current year.
- These reinstatements are carried out on an area basis to maximise efficiencies and economies. The reinstatement schedule is subject to financial and programming constrains. There is a backlog of reinstatements on the database to be dealt with.
- 20% of the budget is available for emergency reinstatement of hazardous openings.
- Water and Drainage openings are also repaired as part of the Annual Road and Footpath Restoration Programme where appropriate.
- The final cost of repair is borne by the relevant utility.