Council seeks roadworks controls

Dublin City Council is proposing to introduce tighter controls on when utility companies can dig up roads in the capital.

The council is also seeking to extend the ban on roadworks before Christmas to include the last week of November for all roads between the canals.

In its proposal, which must be approved by the city councillors, the council is proposing to ban all road works other than emergency repairs and work for the Luas or Transport 21 projects on busy routes between December 1st and December 26th.

Another change being sought by the council is that applications for temporary road closures by companies hoping to carry out roadworks will now have to be submitted at least five weeks before the planned road works.

At the moment the council says it is being left with "with insufficient time for proper consideration of the request".

The council also wants to change the rules so that companies will no longer be able to provide an impact statement the day after some works are carried out.

In its proposal document the council quotes from a Northern Ireland report that says regardless of the quality of repairs, the life-span of roads after being dug up and repaired is reduced by up to 30 per cent.

To counter this, the council currently charges a "long-term damage fee" to utility firms to off-set the costs associated with large-scale repairs and resurfacing.

However, the council is developing a new method of calculating how much it should seek recoup using a modelling system from the Dublin Transportation Office and is looking at introducing a new fee structure once the review is complete.

Dublin City Council was unable to provide details of the costs associated with repairs to roads dug-up by utilities last night.

One immediate change, to be considered by councillors this week, is a change in how these long-term damage costs are collected.

At the moment the council inspects a road once a gas, telecoms or other utility firm has finished work and repaired the running surface.

If the council is satisfied, the company pays 50 per cent of the long-term damage charge, with the remainder due at the end of 18 months.

The council wants to change this so that utilities pay all their long-term damage contribution up front.

The council also makes clear that all damage to its traffic management systems at priority junctions have to be paid by the company.

It has also reviewed the traffic importance of a number of roads and wants to change them. Different roadwork rules apply depending on the importance of a road to the traffic network.

The proposals will be put to the council's transportation and traffic strategic policy committee on Friday.

If passed, the new rules will come into force in September.