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(b)
(c)
In accordance with the Crown Land Ordinance (Cap. 28), any party who needs to make an excavation into a public road is required to obtain an Excavation Permit (EP) from Highways Department. A road opening proposal is to be submitted to Highways Department in advance of the application for the EP, to ensure proper co-ordination among all relevant utility undertakers and Government departments.
The EP is issued with a set of conditions which require the Permittee, among other things, to circulate the road opening proposal to all parties concerned, including Water Supplies Department, to obtain relevant plans and information of existing services that may be affected. This circulation has to be done at least 7 days before commencing the road opening works.
Bearing in mind that the actual location of utility services may deviate from that indicated on the plans, the Permittee is also required to carry out suitable investigations, including, where possible, hand-dug trial pits, to ascertain the exact utility locations before commencing the road opening works. This is a standard requirement of the EP on all road opening works.
Despite these precautions, watermain bursts directly attributable to road opening activities still account for almost 30% of watermain burst cases in the past 6 years. The main reasons are:
(1)
(2)
(3)
Lack of or inadequate hand-dug trial pit investigation by the Permittee to accurately locate the watermains.
Lack of or inadequate protective measures provided in the course of excavation or utility installations, resulting in the overloading of the watermain or excessive settlement of the supporting ground. This can be aggravated by heavy rainfall when the trench is open.
In general, inadequate supervision by contractors of their workers and excavation plant operators, despite having necessary information on the watermains and instructions on how to protect them from damage.
In order to increase the deterrent effect, we are considering suitable amendments to the legislation and to imposing heavier penalties on those who cause damage to watermains, including an increase in the fines from $5,000 to $25,000.
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