Public Utilities Street Works Act 1950 (repealed 1.1.1993)

10 Protection for transport authorities (right to execute works and to be paid cost thereof). E+W+S

(1) Where works to which section three of this Act applies, other than emergency works, are to be executed in a [F1 street][F1 road] which is carried by or goes under a bridge vested in a transport authority, or in a [F1 street][F1 road] which crosses or is crossed by any other property which is held or used for the purposes of a transport undertaking, and the works involve breaking up or opening the [F1 street][F1 road] or tunnelling or boring under it, the transport authority may by notice given to the undertakers within the time mentioned in this subsection elect themselves to execute all or any of the following in so far as they are to be executed in that [F1 street][F1 road], that is to say—

(a) the breaking up, opening, tunnelling or boring;

(b) any other items of the works which are of an incidental nature (as distinguished from the placing of apparatus or other principal operation in question); and

(c) reinstatement and making good (but excluding any such reinstatement and making good as the [F2 street][F2 roads] authority or [F1 street][F1 road] managers are entitled to elect to do, without the consent of the undertakers, under the Third Schedule to this Act, unless the transport authority are themselves the [F2 street][F2 roads] authority or the [F1 street][F1 road] managers entitled so to elect, or the [F2 street][F2 roads] authority of the [F1 street][F1 road] managers entitled so to elect consent to the election of the transport authority under this subsection);

and, where notice of such an election is duly given, the undertakers shall not execute any of the works or reinstatement and making good specified therein, but the transport authority shall execute such works or reinstatement and making good, and the undertakers shall pay to the authority an amount equal to the cost reasonably incurred by the authority of the execution thereof:

Provided that the matters to which this subsection is to apply by virtue of such a notice may be varied by agreement between the transport authority and the undertakers.

A notice of such an election must be given not later than—

(i) in a case in which the plan and section of the works are settled without recourse to arbitration, the expiration of twenty-nine days (or, if the works relate only to a service pipe or service line or [F3 overhead telecommunication apparatus], eight days) from the date on which the plan and section were submitted to the transport authority, or

(ii) in a case in which the plan and section are settled by arbitration, the expiration of fifteen days from the date of the award.

(2) If it appears to a transport authority to whom a plan and section of works to which section three of this Act applies in such a [F4 street][F4 road] as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section are submitted under subsection (1) of the said section three, or are furnished under subsection (3) thereof, that the undertakers’ works render any other works necessary either—

(a) for preserving the stability of a bridge vested in the authority for the purposes of such a weight as it is then capable of carrying, or

(b) otherwise for securing that the state or circumstances of property held or used for the purposes of their undertaking shall not become other than is requisite having regard to the purposes for which it is intended or used,

whether consisting only of works to be executed on the occasion of the execution of the undertakers’ works or comprising both works to be executed then and subsequent works of maintenance, and—

(i) the authority give to the undertakers, within twenty-nine days from the date on which the plan and section were submitted or furnished to the authority, a notice specifying works which they claim to be so rendered necessary, or, if the plan and section fall to be settled by arbitration, claim in the proceedings for the settlement thereof that any works are so rendered necessary, and

(ii) the undertakers agree, or it is determined by arbitration, that any works are so rendered necessary,

the undertakers shall pay to the authority an amount equal to the cost reasonably incurred by the authority of executing those works or any of them.

Where it has been agreed or determined that works are rendered necessary as aforesaid by works of the undertakers not yet executed, the undertakers shall not execute any of their works so as to interfere with the execution of the works so agree or determined, and the transport authority shall execute the works so agreed or determined (so far as they are to be executed on the occasion of the execution of the undertakers’ works) as soon as is reasonably practicable after the agreement or determination has been made.

(3) If undertakers execute any works or reinstatement and making good in contravention of either of the two preceding subsections, the transport authority may, in so far as the nature of what has been done permits and is such as to render such action necessary, undo what has been done and do again any of it that consists of such things as are mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (1) of this section, and the undertakers shall pay to the authority an amount equal to the cost reasonably incurred by them of so doing.

(4) If a transport authority fail to execute works or reinstatement and making good in accordance with an obligation to which they are subject by virtue of subsection (1) or (2) of this section, they shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds in respect of each day of such failure.

(5) Where a transport authority execute works or reinstatement and making good pursuant to an election under subsection (1) of this section, or under subsection (3) of this section, they shall be subject to all obligations and liabilities imposed by sections seven and eight of this Act, sections twelve and thirteen thereof, and section twenty-six thereof to which the undertakers would have been subject if the works or reinstatement and making good had been executed by them, and any cost reasonably incurred by the authority of doing things necessary for the discharge of any of those obligations and liabilities shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (1) or (3) of this section as part of the cost of the works or reinstatement and making good in question except in the case of a liability arising by reason of a default on the part of the authority:

Provided that—

(a) subsection (2) of section seven (as to the obligation of undertakers to reinstate and make good) shall not apply to the authority unless they have elected to reinstate and make good, and in that case paragraph (c) of that subsection shall not apply unless the election extends to reinstatement and making good at upper levels;

(b) paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section eight (as to fencing, guarding and lighting) and paragraph (b) of that subsection (as to traffic signs) shall apply to the authority only where they do the initial breaking up or opening of a [F5 street][F5 road], and in that case shall cease to apply to them as soon as the undertakers begin any of the works which they are to do, and paragraphs (c) to (e) of that subsection (as to obstruction and like matters) shall apply to the authority, to the exclusion of the undertakers’ obligation thereunder, during and in connection with what the authority do but to no further extent; and

(c) the authority shall not be subject to the liability imposed by subsection (6) of section twenty-six to pay compensation in respect of damage caused by the execution of works lawfully, and the undertakers shall be subject to that liability notwithstanding that the works are executed by the authority.

Textual Amendments

F1 Word “road” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(11)(a)

F2 Word “roads” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(11)(a)

F3 Words substituted by Telecommunications Act 1984 (c. 12, SIF 96), s. 109, Sch. 4 para. 29(2), Sch. 5 para. 45

F4 Word “road” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(11)(b)

F5 Word “road” substituted (S.) for word “street” by Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (c. 54, SIF 108), Sch. 9 para. 39(11)(c)