Selectmen consider licensing utility trench diggers
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
As if cobblestones, poorly maintained private roads and bombed out dirt roads do not provide enough pounding for our vehicles, islanders must also endure driving over utility cuts in the pavement.

A recent utility cut in front of the Faregrounds Restaurant on Fairgrounds Road.

Those who frequented North Beach Street and the Brant Point area all winter, drivers who regularly travel Fairgrounds Road, Nobadeer Farm Road, Bartlett Road and Old South Road before the town recently paved the streets in that area, know the dread of going over these reverse speed bumps, many of which are shoddily backfilled and paved.

Currently, the town's policy on opening up paved town roads allows anyone who can wield operate a jackhammer or pavement cutter, a shovel or operate a backhoe to rip open the street any time they need to after obtaing a permit from the Department of Public Works. It's a process that can leave the quality of that opening, and subsequent repairs, to whoever's notso deft hand does the work.

But, that could be changing next month.

Anyone who wants to open a town road must get a permit from the DPW, arrange for a police detail, provide proper road work signage and orange cones, and post a $10,000-bond that DPW can use should the filling and repaving of the trench not meet the town's standards, said Assistant DPW Director Mohamed Nabulsi.

When backfilling utility trenches across town roads, the fill must be applied in 16-inch layers that are compacted before each new layer is added. On top of the last layer approaching street level must be three quarters of an inch of gravel and then the asphalt, which must be compacted to the level of the street, and can be either cold or hot mix, depending on the time of year.

But, if the selectmen approve the new policy it is now considering, said Nabulsi, anyone wanting to open a town road would need to apply for an annual license that would cost $200. The reasons for licensing those who perform utility cuts is to ensure the quality of the cuts. The road cut's patch job must last until the road is paved by the town.

"Everybody who is excavating must have a license. They must have knowledge of the equipment, access to safety equipment and the ability to perform it [the utility cut] and the permit requires a $200 fee," said Nabulsi.

Nabulsi said the selectmen are planning a public hearing for their June 20

meeting to discuss this proposal. I