Query re road opening license

westisbest

We've been told by the ESB that to connect the electricity we need a road opening license. I have looked up the council website and it says there is an administration fee to be paid and also a deposit of €2000 which they hold for a minimum of 24 months in case of damage to the road which may arise afterwards.

On the application form it is the contractor's details that need to be completed and the council also wants public and employer's liability insurance, both of which we have for the site, but I don't think this would cover us for the road outside it. We are doing the house self build, hiring the individual contractors when needed, with a supervising engineer who is not involved much day to day, mostly used for reviewing the work when it comes to drawing down stage payments.

Does anyone have any experience of road opening licenses? We only found this out today so will contact the council on Monday and see if we can find somone there who can tell us about it, but in the meantime -

1) Is it ourselves who needs to pay the admin fee (which is fine) and the deposit which they will hold for at least 24 months (not so fine, an extra 2k onto the mortgage even if we do get it back in two years time)

2) In terms of the insurance will this be our responsibilty or that of the contractor? And will our existing insurance cover this?

3) Who exactly does this type of work, i.e. what type of contractor are we looking for?

4) With the deposit, if a pothole turns up on the road (which would have quite a high level of traffic daily) within the 24 months can the council just claim it is due to our work and keep all or part of our deposit or do they need to prove it is related to us?

Also if we are likely to need it for water, phone, etc is it possible to do it all at once?

Sorry I know we should have known all this initially but unfortunately we were possibly relying a bit too much on knowledge of others, who we now realise probably don't have all the experience.

If anyone could answer any of this it would be great, thanks.

RO 06

westisbest wrote: »

We've been told by the ESB that to connect the electricity we need a road opening license. I have looked up the council website and it says there is an administration fee to be paid and also a deposit of €2000 which they hold for a minimum of 24 months in case of damage to the road which may arise afterwards.

On the application form it is the contractor's details that need to be completed and the council also wants public and employer's liability insurance, both of which we have for the site, but I don't think this would cover us for the road outside it. We are doing the house self build, hiring the individual contractors when needed, with a supervising engineer who is not involved much day to day, mostly used for reviewing the work when it comes to drawing down stage payments.

Does anyone have any experience of road opening licenses? We only found this out today so will contact the council on Monday and see if we can find somone there who can tell us about it, but in the meantime -

1) Is it ourselves who needs to pay the admin fee (which is fine) and the deposit which they will hold for at least 24 months (not so fine, an extra 2k onto the mortgage even if we do get it back in two years time)

2) In terms of the insurance will this be our responsibilty or that of the contractor? And will our existing insurance cover this?

3) Who exactly does this type of work, i.e. what type of contractor are we looking for?

4) With the deposit, if a pothole turns up on the road (which would have quite a high level of traffic daily) within the 24 months can the council just claim it is due to our work and keep all or part of our deposit or do they need to prove it is related to us?

Also if we are likely to need it for water, phone, etc is it possible to do it all at once?

Sorry I know we should have known all this initially but unfortunately we were possibly relying a bit too much on knowledge of others, who we now realise probably don't have all the experience.

If anyone could answer any of this it would be great, thanks.

You pay the fee.Your contractor needs to have the revelant insurances. It is a groundworks contractor you are looking for.Get every thing done under the one road opening license.From past experience you tell the council the size of road opening and give them a marked plan and they price it from there.If a pothole turns up you repair it.You get a inspector out when the time is up and they will refund you if happy.They might keep 10 euro per square metre for future repairs.What part of the country are you in?

mossfort

you can get a contractor to bore under the road without touching the tarmac if the ground is not too rocky.
theres a bore which hooks up to a mobile compressor and uses vibration to bore through.
it creates less mess and would be worth considering and you wont need the
opening licence.

gally74

id bore under the road aswell,

where is your water, you may get the two jobs done at once

mickdw

I would go under the road too if small ducts are all that is required.