The city will now require road contractors and excavators to provide enough safety measures on their road digging or excavation work.
The city council approved on final reading Ordinance 54 s. 2008 authored by vice mayor Daniel Fariñas for said purpose.
In his measure, Fariñas said road repair and excavation works have become periodic occurrences in the city necessitating the creation of canals and other road easements such as manhole openings according to their engineered purposes.
“Such canals and pits when left unchecked or unguarded may [cause] and have caused accidents and property damages to innumerable people. These accidents are likely to occur during nights, rainy weather, when vehicles back up, and [when] the visibility of the roads are very difficult to estimate,” he noted.
“The provision of concrete coverings and iron grids to prevent such disasters must be imposed upon contractors and road excavators as a measure to put a stop to such occurrences. There has been so much uncalculated amounts put to waste for damages and injuries spent by innumerable victims for such a persisting problem that only takes a simple solution that this legislative measure aims to correct,” the measure said.
As per the ordinance, “All road contractors and/or excavators shall provide temporary concrete coverings and/or steel grills when excavations are ongoing and permanent concrete coverings and/or steel grills after construction has been fully completed on all canals, manholes, and other pits that pose danger to vehicles and pedestrians.”
Violators will be penalized as follows (on government projects): first offense – reprimand; second offense – revocation of contract in any government projects; and third offense – contractor will be barred from any government projects.
In case the project is private in nature, the following penalties will be imposed: first offense – reprimand; second offense – suspension of business permit within six months; and third offense – revocation of business permit.
For government project undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways, the City Engineering Office, the Baguio Water District, the Benguet Electric Cooperative, and the officials concerned shall be sanctioned as follows: first offense –reprimand; second offense – suspension of one month without pay; and third offense – suspension for three months without pay.
Any private individual or contractor and/excavator who has no license to operate found to be violating the provisions of this ordinance shall be penalized as follows: first offense – fine of P1,000 and reprimand; second offense – fine of P1,500; and third offense – fine of P2,000 or three days imprisonment or both at the discretion of the court. |
