Utility Permits – Managing the Risk and Liability

By K C Pawling, Road Safety and Loss Prevention Specialist

You may wonder why I am writing about utility permits for my Safety Shorts article. This topic has as much to do with worker safety as it does with managing the liabilities associated with poorly placed utilities. I’m covering many of the same points as my recent article in the NIRMA Interchange magazine. The reason is that I want to reach as many “boots on the ground” county employees as possible. I want everyone to understand that a county should have a well-structured utility permit for not only managing the placement of utilities but also managing the safety of our employees.

I know many times a county roads crew goes out to do a project, and they experience a conflict with a utility line. Often, they did not know the line was at the location, or even more frequently, the utility was located incorrectly, or not at all. I don’t have to tell you all the hazards associated with these experiences, because you live them while working out on the roads.

What I do want to tell you is that you should encourage county managers to adopt and use a utility permit so we can better mitigate the hazards we encounter while digging. And, the utility permit should not end at managing the placement of communication lines, it should be used for all utilities, such as gas and electric lines.

Here are the 3 W’s of utility permits.

The WHAT: 

Nebraska Revised Statute §39-1361 gives counties the authority to use a permit process to manage utilities that desire to occupy their road right-of-way:

No person, firm, or corporation shall construct or install any new pole line, any underground conduit, or any buried cable or erect any new guy wires upon any portion of the state highway right-of-way without obtaining a written consent or permit from the department. The department shall grant such written consent or permits to do any of the things mentioned in this section if the installation of such a thing does not interfere with, or cause unreasonable hazards to, the use of the right-of-way for highway purposes. 

I will also point out that §39-1362 imposes penalties on a utility for failure to obtain a permit from the county for any of the activities listed in §39-1361. Each county should establish and implement a sound permitting process so that it could impose these statutory penalties on a utility company, if necessary.

The WHEN:

Anytime it is desired to place a utility line in the right-of-way, a permit should be submitted to the county. This includes any farmer that wants to run a water line, electric line for pivots or even a gas line across the right-of-way. Homeowners should be subject to exactly the same requirement as utility companies.

The WHY:

If we do not lay out the parameters for permission in writing, the county road department will risk having conflicts in the future when trying to complete maintenance or reconstruction of the roadways.

NIRMA offers a model utility permit that is a suitable place to start when developing or revising your permits. Some of the key parameters in the model permit are:

1. A requirement that the utility applicant provides the county with a certificate of insurance that meets certain monetary requirements.
2. A requirement that the utility applicant contact the diggers’ hotline BEFORE any breaking of ground. Also, a requirement that any damage to existing utilities will be the sole responsibility of the permit applicant.
3. A requirement that areas disturbed by construction/installation will be restored to preconstruction conditions by the applicant. This could include compaction, surfacing materials, or seeding of disturbed areas.
4. Pipe and connection requirements, and the location of connections in relation to the driving surface.
5. Specific requirements for paved surfaces (Dry boring).
6. The applicant must identify the installation method and requirements for each method. For example: Boring, Plowing or Open Trench, with or without encasement.
7. Depth and lateral placement requirements, and specifically the need to identify placements around the structures in the road, for example culverts and bridges. Do you want the lines placed in the shoulder of the roadway to facilitate future ditch cleaning?
8. Applicants are responsible for the damage to the right-of-way while the utility remains in the right-of-way.
9. Provisions for the management of road closures during installation.
10. Reserving for the county the right to inspect the contractor’s worksite and temporary traffic control practices.
11. Specifies that temporary traffic control practices must meet the requirements of the latest edition of the MUTCD.
12. Lists the resulting corrective actions if the parameters in the permit are not followed.
13. Requires that a set of plans be included with the permit application.
14. Specifies a period in which the roadway surface can be disturbed. For example, no plowing or trenching the road from November to March, because the road cannot “heal” before winter weather.
15. Specifies that future road work could require relocation at the utility owner’s expense.

There are other items that can be included in a permit process, but the key parameters listed above give an idea of what a good and EFFECTIVE utility permit can look like. Also, ANY permit without provision for inspection of the installation by the county and provisions to ensure the accountability of the contractors completing the installation will not be effective.

NIRMA’s model utility permit can be found on our website, or I can send you a copy of the permit if requested. Look at it even if your county has a permit in place already. You may have questions about why it has some of the items listed that it does, and I would enjoy discussing those questions with you. We may both learn something in the process.

I look forward to hearing from you. I can be reached at 402-310-4417 or kcpawling@nirma.info.