Construction and maintenance of new, altered or diverted streets and other structuresE+W+S
12.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), any highway to be constructed, altered or diverted under this Order, including any culverts or other structures laid under or in it, must be maintained by and at the expense of the highway authority for that highway from its completion.
(2) A variable message sign provided under this Order must be maintained by the undertaker.
(3) Where a street which is not and is not intended to be a public highway is constructed, altered or diverted under this Order, the street (or part of the street as the case may be) must, when completed to the reasonable satisfaction of the street authority, unless otherwise agreed in writing, be maintained by and at the expense of the undertaker for a period of 12 months from its completion and at the expiry of that period by and at the expense of the street authority.
(4) The new bridge and new bridge approaches must be maintained by and at the expense of the local highway authority from the date of their completion.
(5) In any action against the undertaker in respect of loss or damage resulting from any failure by the undertaker to maintain a street under this article, it is a defence (without prejudice to any other defence or the application of the law relating to contributory negligence) to prove that the undertaker had taken such care as in all the circumstances was reasonably required to secure that the part of the street to which the action relates was not dangerous to traffic.
(6) For the purposes of a defence under paragraph (5), the court must in particular have regard to the following matters—
(a)the character of the street and the traffic which was reasonably to be expected to use it;
(b)the standard of maintenance appropriate for a street of that character and used by such traffic;
(c)the state of repair in which a reasonable person would have expected to find the street;
(d)whether the undertaker knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, that the condition of the part of the street to which the action relates was likely to cause danger to users of the street; and
(e)where the undertaker could not reasonably have been expected to repair that part of the street before the cause of action arose, what warning notices of its condition had been displayed,
but for the purposes of such a defence it is not relevant to prove that the undertaker had arranged for a competent person to carry out or supervise the maintenance of the part of the street to which the action relates unless it is also proved that the undertaker had given the competent person proper instructions with regard to the maintenance of the street and that the competent person had carried out those instructions.
(7) Where any works to which this article relates are works to a highway for which the undertaker is not the highway authority, the date for completion of those works is to be such date as is agreed by the undertaker and the highway authority.
(8) The date of completion of any works referred to in paragraph (3) is to be such date as is agreed by the undertaker and the street authority.
Commencement Information
I1Art. 12 in force at 15.10.2020, see art. 1