A new city ordinance could require utility companies to obtain a permit before repairing any of their infrastructure buried under streets or sidewalks.
Nathan Katona, the city’s building department director, told the council during a work session Wednesday at City Hall that a proposed ordinance would seek to protect recently-paved city streets from encroachment when possible, require utilities to restore rights-of-way in a timely manner after repairs are complete and clearly establish what constitutes an “emergency” that would expedite the approval process.
“(Outside) the YMCA is a great example,” Katona told The Dispatch after the work session. “A utility makes a repair, and then I think what’s happening is they’re waiting until they have enough repairs to get a better deal (on patching them). … So then we’re left with these holes for weeks and weeks, sometimes months.”
Katona said “pretty much every utility is guilty” of that type of behavior, but Atmos Energy, Columbus Light and Water and AT&T are the three the city deals with most.
As of now, utilities must obtain certain permits to install new underground infrastructure, but they are only required to notify the city of planned repairs to existing assets, Katona said. On a given day, he said his office receives two to three notifications from a utility cutting into a street somewhere in the city.
“We’re not against the utilities,” he said. “They are very responsive when we call them. We just don’t want to be calling for every single hole around the city that sometimes we don’t find out about until citizens are hitting it and calling us.”
Atmos is among the most aggressive, he said, as the company is using equipment to sweep its system for leaks and repair them.
With the city planning another round of paving work for later this year, Katona said he believes now is the right time to consider an ordinance.
“We’ve had brand new roads that have been getting cut open,” Katona said. “So we really want to avoid that for this next round of paving.”
Ward 5 Councilman Gary Jefferson said it is “discouraging” and “frustrating” to see any street, especially new overlays, damaged for utility repairs, especially when he feels those repairs aren’t always handled correctly.
“There have been times with Atmos where they’ve gone in and had to come back because whatever they fixed wasn’t (properly) fixed, and then they have to tear up that same spot out and redo it,” Jefferson told The Dispatch. “If we had an ordinance, maybe they would actually take their time … and put more effort into it.”
Rusty Greene, who represents Ward 3, said he wants the ordinance to require utilities to restore what they tear up to a certain quality standard.
He gave an example of the recently paved Forrest Glen Road, where a utility repaired infrastructure underneath. Not only did the company leave a hole there for several weeks, he said, the patch was much lower quality than the asphalt workers cut through.
Katona said some contractors working on behalf of utilities do a better job than others restoring roads after repair work is finished. The problem is the city has no say in who does the work.
Both Katona and Greene also want utilities to work better with the city’s paving schedule.
“Emergencies happen and we get it,” Greene told The Dispatch. “But lack of planning is a whole other thing. We send out (to the utilities) before we pave, ‘We’re fixing to pave this road. If you’re going to do any repairs, you need to do it now.’ We just don’t have a policy that’s got a whole lot of teeth in it.”
Katona said he is researching ordinances in other cities, like Oxford, Tupelo and Laurel, to see what might work best for Columbus.
In Starkville, for example, City Engineer Cody Burnett told The Dispatch the city requires for any work in a right-of-way, including utility repairs. Those companies must submit a plan for review that shows the expected impact to the road or sidewalk, as well as to other underground utilities. For emergencies, like a gas leak, he said the city issues an expedited permit.
Most impacted roads or sidewalks are restored within 30 days, Burnett said, though Starkville does not have a written time requirement.
Katona also wants to involve utility company representatives in discussions about what ends up in Columbus’ ordinance.
“What’s reasonable? Not, ‘Hey, get it done in three days.’ That’s crazy,” he said. “(We just want) clear communication of what’s expected.”
The Dispatch reached out to Atmos media relations representatives, who did not provide a comment by press time.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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