Office of Public Sector Information

Restriction on works following substantial street works

12.—(1) For the purposes of Schedule 3A to the 1991 Act, substantial street works means major works.

(2) The period prescribed under paragraph 2(2) of that Schedule must be not less than 20 days from the date on which the notice is published.

(3) A notice under paragraph 2 of that Schedule relating to a proposed restriction on street works following substantial street works must be published by the street authority concerned on any website maintained by the authority for the purpose of providing information to the public.

(4) In addition to those to whom a copy of the notice must be given under paragraph 2(4) of that Schedule, a copy must also be given to —

(a) the occupier of any premises which have a frontage onto the part of the highway to which the proposed restriction relates; and

(b) any other person who has made a written request asking for a copy of any such notice.

(5) Notification by an undertaker under paragraph 2(1)(d) of Schedule 3A of proposed street works and a direction restricting the execution of works under paragraph 4 of that Schedule must be in, or to the like effect as, the form contained in the Technical Specification and must contain such information as is relevant to the notification or direction, as the case may be, in accordance with that specification.

(6) The provisions of regulation 6(3) to (10) apply to the making of such notification in the same manner as they apply to the giving of a notice under that regulation.

(7) A direction under paragraph 4 of that Schedule must be given by publishing it on any website maintained by the street authority for the purpose of providing information to the public.

(8) In addition to the case specified in paragraph 3(5)(a) of Schedule 3A to the 1991 Act, paragraph 3(4) of that Schedule does not apply in the cases set out in paragraph (11) below where no prior notification has been given under section 54 or 55, or paragraph 2(1)(d) of that Schedule, in relation to the works referred to.

(9) For the purposes of paragraph 4(4) of that Schedule, the prescribed period is —

(a) 1 year in relation to traffic-sensitive streets and streets in road category 0, 1 or 2 which are not traffic-sensitive streets; and

(b) 6 months in relation to streets in road category 3 or 4 which are not traffic-sensitive streets.

(10) In addition to the cases specified in paragraph 5(2) of that Schedule, paragraph 5(1) of that Schedule does not apply in the cases set out in the following paragraph.

(11) The cases referred to in paragraphs (8) and (10) are where an undertaker executes urgent works or any other works set out in paragraph (12).

(12) The works referred to in paragraph (11) are street works —

(a) not involving breaking up the street;

(b) that are —

(i) required to respond to a request for a new service or supply to a customer which was not received at a time when it was practicable for the works to be done before the date on which the restriction began; and

(ii) carried out more than 19 days from that date;

(c) carried out —

(i) under regulation 16(3)(b) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998;

(ii) to comply with an improvement notice under section 21 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974; or

(iii) as a consequence of a prohibition notice under section 22 of that Act; or

(d) that —

(i) are required to comply with a programme approved under regulation 13A of the Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996; and

(ii) could not have been identified before the restriction began.

(13) For the purposes of paragraph 5(3) of Schedule 3A to the 1991 Act, any question as to whether the withholding of consent by a street authority is unreasonable will be settled by arbitration.

Exemptions and adaptations

13.—(1) Street managers are exempted from the provisions of section 53(1).

(2) In relation to a street which is not a maintainable highway —

(a) sections 53 and 80 and regulation 4 are adapted so that, for the purposes of those provisions, the local highway authority are the street authority; and

(b) section 61 does not apply where consent to the breaking up or opening of the street is required under any other enactment.

Designation of streets as protected

14.—(1) A street authority must not designate a street as protected under section 61 unless —

(a) the street fulfils a specific strategic traffic need;

(b) the street is subject to such high and constant traffic flows that designation as a traffic-sensitive street would not be sufficient to avoid serious disruption to traffic caused by street works; and

(c) there exists a reasonable alternative for placing undertakers' apparatus which could lawfully be placed in the street.

(2) The procedure for making or withdrawing such a designation is set out in the Schedule.

(3) The information to be made available by the street authority in respect of each street for the time being designated by them as protected must include —

(a) the date of designation;

(b) particulars of the street in sufficient detail to enable it to be identified; and

(c) particulars of all consents to the placing of apparatus in the street.

Designation of streets as having special engineering difficulties

15.—(1) The criteria for designating a street as having special engineering difficulties under section 63 are —

(a) in the case of a street with which an engineering structure is associated, that its fundamental integrity and safety is dependent upon special measures being taken in the planning and execution of street works in the relevant part of the street in order to avoid serious failure of the structure concerned; or

(b) in the case of any other street, that there is a specific engineering feature identified as fundamental to the structure and integrity of the street as a whole requiring special measures to be taken in the planning and execution of street works in order to avoid serious failure of the street as a whole.

(2) The procedure for making or withdrawing such a designation is set out in the Schedule.

(3) The information to be made available by the street authority in respect of each street for the time being designated by them as having special engineering difficulties must include —

(a) the date of designation;

(b) particulars of the street in sufficient detail to enable it to be identified;

(c) the features which justify the designation; and

(d) particulars of the authority or undertaker with an interest in the street.

Designation of streets as traffic-sensitive

16.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (5), a street authority may only designate a street as traffic-sensitive under section 64 if one or more of the criteria set out in paragraph (2) are met.

(2) The criteria referred to in paragraph (1) are that the street —

(a) is one on which at any time the street authority estimate the traffic flow to be greater than 500 vehicles per hour per lane of carriageway, disregarding bus or cycle lanes;

(b) is a single carriageway two-way road, the carriageway of which is less than 6.5 metres wide, having a traffic flow in both directions of not less than 600 vehicles per hour;

(c) falls within an area covered by an Order in respect of congestion charges made under section 169 of the Transport Act 2000(14);

(d) is one on which more than 25% of the traffic flow in both directions consists of heavy commercial vehicles;

(e) is one on which the traffic flow in both directions includes more than eight buses per hour;

(f) is designated by the local highway authority, as part of its winter maintenance programme, as one requiring the treatment of any part of it with salt or other chemicals, when low temperatures are expected, to prevent the formation of ice;

(g) is within 100 metres of a critical signalised junction or a critical gyratory or roundabout system;

(h) has a pedestrian traffic flow of at least 1300 people per hour, per metre width of footway; or

(i) is on a tourist route or within an area where international, national or significant major local events take place.

(3) A street authority may only designate a street as traffic-sensitive in accordance with paragraph (1) for the times and on the dates when one or more of the criteria set out in paragraph (2) apply.

(4) The procedure for making or withdrawing a designation under paragraph (1) is set out in the Schedule.

(5) A street authority may, notwithstanding paragraphs (1) to (3), designate a street as traffic-sensitive with the agreement of the majority of statutory undertakers whom they know to have apparatus in the street.

(6) The information to be made available by the street authority in respect of each street for the time being designated by them as traffic-sensitive must include —

(a) the date of designation;

(b) particulars of the street in sufficient detail to enable it to be identified; and

(c) in the case of a limited designation, the times of day, days, periods or occasions when the designation applies.

(7) In this regulation —

“bus” (“bws”) has the same meaning as in regulation 22(2) of the 2002 Regulations;

“bus lane”( “lôn i fysiau”) and “cycle lane” (“lôn i feiciau”) have the same meaning as in regulation 4 of the 2002 Regulations;

“critical signalised junction” (“cyffordd â signalau critigol”) means a traffic signal junction at which, in the absence of street works or works for road purposes and at times when the exit is not blocked, no less than 5 per cent of peak hour vehicles on average fail to clear the junction on the first green signal;

“critical gyratory or roundabout system” (“system gylchdro neu gylchfan gritigol”) means a gyratory or roundabout system where, in the absence of street works or works for road purposes, no less than 5 per cent of peak hour vehicles on average are delayed by more than 20 seconds;

“heavy commercial vehicle” (“cerbyd masnachol trwm”) has the meaning given by section 138 of the 1984 Act; and

“peak hour” (“oriau brig”) means between 7.30 am and 9.30 am and between 3.30 pm and 7.00 pm on the relevant day.

Modification of section 70(3) and (4A)

17.—(1) Section 70 (duty of undertaker to reinstate) is modified (in its application as respects Wales) as follows.

(2) In subsections (3) and (4A) for “7” substitute “10”.

Notification of reinstatement

18.—(1) Any notice given by an undertaker to the street authority in accordance with —

(a) section 70(3) that a reinstatement has been completed; or

(b) section 70(4A) that a permanent reinstatement has been completed,

must give the information about the reinstatement set out in paragraph (2).

(2) The information referred to in paragraph (1) is —

(a) a reference point for —

(i) the centre of any reinstatement that does not exceed 10 metres in length; and

(ii) each end of any reinstatement that exceeds 10 metres in length;

(b) the dimensions of the reinstatement;

(c) the date on which the reinstatement was completed; and

(d) the method of reinstatement.

(3) In paragraph (2) “reference point” (“pwynt cyfeiriol”) means an Ordnance Survey National grid reference point to a resolution of one metre.

Transitional arrangements

19.  These Regulations do not apply to street works in Wales in respect of which an undertaker has given a notice under section 54(1), 55(1) or 57 before the date on which these Regulations come into force and the Street Works (Registers, Notices, Directions and Designations) Regulations 1992 continue to have effect in relation to those works, as if they had not been disapplied.

Revocation of the Street Works (Registers, Notices, Directions and Designations) (Wales) Regulations 2008

20.  The Street Works (Registers, Notices, Directions and Designations) (Wales) Regulations 2008(15) are revoked.