Here are some of the many questions we are regularly asked.

If you have a query that is not answered here, then please get in touch!

For sewer connections we cover most areas where either Anglian Water, Severn Trent or Thames water are the Water Authority for drainage.

With so many variables involved here it is difficult to give an average cost, but anything from a few thousand pounds to tens of thousands. Click here for a quote.

A sewer connection in the Highway can take as little as a few days, up to a week or more or sometimes many weeks in the event that the public sewer is a long way from the site.

Beware though – the paperwork in advance will take much, much longer. You will need to do a , which we will normally take care of for you. In the event that the public sewer is in the Highway (90% of the time) we will need to apply to the local Highways Dept at the County Council for a , ordinarily you cannot do this yourself, we have to do it for you. This process cannot normally be started until you/we have the from the water authority – Highways need to know that the Water Authority are in agreement that the connection be made.

The application will normally take anything from a few weeks to a couple of months. Once we are in receipt of the , we have to give notice to Highways that we want to use it. For a very small job in the Highway, the notice period is 1 week. For a week’s work in the Highway, the notice we have to give is often 3 weeks, and 3 months or more for a major project.

An increasing amount of jobs in the Highway require a road closure, and the minimum legal notice period for one of these is 3 months. And just because we give notice to Highways that we wish to use our licence, we won’t necessarily get permission to do so. There has to be no other roadworks going on within a certain radius of the site, and in some instances other contractors could have booked ‘road space’ in the surrounding area for the next few months or more, meaning you’ll be asked to join the back of the queue. In some areas you cannot work during school term time, you’ll have to wait for the next school holiday – as long as other contractors do not already have ‘road space’ booked for then. So all in all:

Time required to get a to connect to a public sewer                 3-6 weeks.

Then… Time required to get a to ‘dig up the road’                      3-10 weeks.

Then… Notice period to be able to use a Section 50 Licence                         1-12 weeks.

Then… Time taken to do the work                                                                              (normally) 3 – 10 days.

Total of anything between 8 and 30 weeks. In the event that you need a sewer connection doing please contact us as soon as possible. You’ll be surprised how many people build a house and then ask us to start the sewer connection process, whereas this process needs starting ideally when the build starts.

Public (adopted) sewers in the Highway can be as shallow as 1m deep, but tend to average 1.5m – 3m deep, but with some a lot deeper. It is not uncommon or some very old public sewers to be 6m deep, or more. The deepest we have seen recently is 7m deep, this was at Richmond in London, adjacent to the River Thames.

The depths of a lot of public sewers are documented by the various water authorities, as are the exact location of them. However, a lot of public sewers are still not mapped. For Anglian Water and Severn Trent sewers visit  http://www.digdat.co.uk/  and for Thames Water visit https://www.thameswater-propertysearches.co.uk/.

It depends. In the case of one house or a couple of houses then connection by ‘junction insertion’ or ‘saddle connection’ would be a more common method of connection, unless of course a manhole exists in close proximity.

In the case of a larger development of more than 3 houses, a connection into a manhole is normally required, or construction of a new manhole on top of the existing pipe if one does not exist close by. The method of connection will always be dictated by the relevant Water Authority, and will always be detailed on the ‘Section 106 Approval Letter’. When instructing JW Clark to undertake a sewer connection, our service will normally include facilitating the Section 106 application (what is a Section 106), unless you have already done it or wish to do it yourself. For a quote for a sewer connection click here.

Junction Insertion

“Oblique junction insertion fitted onto a public sewer, the pipes either side of the sewer are old and new water mains”.

A junction insertion is simply a ‘Y junction’. We cut out a small section of the existing sewer and fit a junction insertion. It sounds simple, but of course there’s a lot more to it than that! The ‘flow’ will normally have to be stopped ‘upstream’ in the next manhole for the work to be carried out safely. A junction insertion will normally be the preferred method of connection onto a public sewer that is up to 300mm in diameter.

Saddle Connection

A saddle connection is the preferred method of connecting onto public sewer greater than 300mm in diameter, and is more likely to be used on a surface water connection than a foul connection – as foul sewer pipes above 300mm are not so common, whereas surface water sewers are often 300mm in diameter, or more. This method of connection requires a hole to be professionally core-drilled into the existing sewer pipe, normally towards the top of the pipe on the side, and the ‘saddle’ to be fixed onto the pipe by way of fast-setting cement slurry or resin. Further pipework can be connected onto the saddle once the connection has cured.

Victorian brick culvert

A saddle connection is also the preferred method of connection into a Victorian Brick Culvert. In this instance a proportion of the culvert on the outside will normally be carefully excavated around first, and a concrete ‘jacket’ carefully applied to the brickwork. When this has cured, the concrete and the brickwork are drilled together. The concrete jacket is required as the brick culvert is dependent on the brickwork for its strength, and core-drilling without the concrete jacked having first been applied would compromise the integrity of the culvert.

In relation to sewer connections, a Section 106 application is required to connect a property to the public (adopted) sewer for the first time. (Not to be confused with a ‘Planning’ Section 106 Agreement, these are private agreements made between local authorities and developers).

How to apply for a Section 106.

JW Clark can apply for a Section 106 on your behalf, and we normally do so for most customers, however if you want to do it yourself then that’s fine.

You/we will need the following to be able to apply for a Section 106:

  1. Drainage Plan – This needs to show foul pipes and manholes within the site, the connection to the public sewer, whether it be by junction insertion or saddle connection and it needs to show the existing public sewer in the Highway or otherwise. A drainage plan previously put together for a ‘new build’ property will normally cover the foul system in the site, but will rarely detail the sewer connection, nor the existing public sewer. It will need amending to include these to be suitable for the Section 106 application, and this is best done by the same architect who drew the original drawing. The drainage plan must also detail surface water/rainwater pipes and manholes in the site, and the method by which it is being discharged, i.e. soakaways or rainwater harvesting system etc.  .
  1. Site Plan.
    This will detail the boundary of the property and must show the property in relation to neighbouring properties or nearby landmarks.
     
  2. Consent/Signature of Apparatus owner.
    Although we will take care of the Section 106 application for you, you will normally need to sign as the ‘Apparatus Owner’ – Although the connection to the public sewer will always be adopted by the water authority, the pipework in the Highway leading away from the connection (the lateral) will normally remain the property and the responsibility of the property owner (unless the lateral is being adopted ). Apart from this one signature, we can normally take care of the Section 106 application for you, and we will normally include to do so in our quote. For a quote click here.
     
  3. Fee to the water authority .
    The fee for a Section 106 can vary between water authorities and is sometimes dependent on the type of connection. Prices start at about £400, and the exact price will always be detailed by us in our quote to you.
     
  4. Method Statement & Risk Assessments.
    We will always put together a Method Statement and Risk Assessments for any sewer connection that we undertake and these must be supplied to and approved by the relevant water authority before work can commence, and will normally have to be included in the initial Section 106 application. ‘Generic’ Method Statements and Risk Assessments are not permitted, they must be ‘Specific’. Our quote to you will always include for these.

Most water authorities charge upwards of £400 for a Section 106 application, and the fee will have to be paid up front before the application will be processed. JW Clark will normally take care of a Section 106 application in the event that you instruct us to do a sewer connection for you, this includes doing all the paperwork, sending it off to the water authority and keeping track of and chasing progress.

In addition to the cost of a Section 106, there is sometimes a charge from the water authority to the end user, sometimes referred to as a Zonal Charge or an Infrastructure Charge. This is often in the region of £500-£600 and is normally charged as part of the continual billing process between the water authority and the end user, however occasionally they will include this is a bill prior to the connection being made. We will never have any visibility or knowledge of what this amount will be, if any. The end user will need to contact the water authority directly to confirm.

OFWAT’s regulations state that a Water Authority must make a start on a Section 106 application within 15 working days of the water authority receiving it. In the event that any queries are generated as a result of the initial application, once the water authority receives an answer to their queries, they have another 15 working days to respond to and continue with the application. With this in mind, it is important to start the process of applying for a Section 106 well in advance of when the sewer connection needs doing.

Not normally, no. The water Authority will only normally adopt (& inspect) the connection onto their sewer. This could be a junction insertion, a saddle connection, or a new manhole if this is the method of connection. The pipework (also known as the lateral) between the connection, and the property, including that which is in the Highway, will normally remain the property of the customer who appoints us. And in the event that the connection is for a new dwelling and this is sold soon after the work is completed, ownership of the pipework (including in the Highway) will pass to the buyer of the new property, unless an alternative arrangement is made of course. Depending on the water authority in question, it is sometimes possible for a limited amount of pipework to be adopted by the Water Authority on a Section 106 application. However more often than not a Section 104 application is required where you wish for the pipework to be adopted, and as a contractor we cannot apply for a Section 104, this has to be done by the owner of the land which is being developed. When instructed to apply for a Section 106 on your behalf, we will always assume that you do not wish for the pipework to be adopted by the Water Authority, unless you advise us otherwise.

In relation to a sewer connection, a Section 50 application to Highways is needed in when the sewer connection requires us to ‘dig up the road’, i.e. to excavate in any part of the Highway, either the footpath, verge or carriageway/road, sometimes in all three. 90% of public sewers are in the Highway, so most sewer connections will require a Section 50 application. We will normally have to do this for you. For this we must have operatives and management NRSWA accredited and we have to hold £10million public liability insurance. Plus of course we need experience in this kind of work, and we have many years’ experience.

Before we can apply for a Section 50 we have to obtain utilities drawings for any apparatus that may exist in the Highway where we are to dig. This will normally include BT, Electric, Gas, Water & sometimes Virgin Media or similar. There is a cost to obtaining these utilities drawings, and this will always be included in a quote for a sewer connection. In some cases there may be no gas or Virgin Media in the vicinity, but in this instance we have to get written permission from the utilities companies that no apparatus exists, for which there is still a cost. We need these drawings so we know where existing utilities are in the Highways before we start digging, and Highways have a duty to know that we have obtained drawings, so no Section 50 application can be made before we have these drawings.

Once we have the utilities drawings we can make our Section 50 application to Highways. This will include us sending in our proof of accreditation and insurance, a site plan detailing the work we wish to do, our traffic management proposal and the Section 106 that we have obtained from the water authority. The Section 50 will then be considered by Highways for processing, which can take anything from a few weeks, up to 10 weeks in some instances.

The fee to Highways for a Section 50 will normally range from £500 – £800, deepening on the area. However, there are sometimes further costs in the event that, for example, a road closure is required or that parking needs to be restricted. Our quote to you will always include all such fees, and will include for us to carry out the whole process for you, from start to finish. For a quote click here.

An increasing number of councils are starting to request that a ‘bond’ be paid prior to any work being carried out in the Highway. For more information please read our full article on this

Yes.  We will always arrange inspection of the actual sewer connection by the water authority as part of our quote to you. As far as any ‘private lateral’ is concerned, this will often need inspecting by Building Control in the event that it is not being adopted by the water authority – which is often the case with 1 new build or a very small development.

Not normally. Water authorities try to discourage anything other than foul going into their foul and combined sewers, except in extenuating circumstances. In the event that there is a dedicated surface water sewer in the Highway there is more likelihood of being able to discharge rainwater/surface water into this, however their preference may still be for rainwater to discharge into soakaways or by other means. This is all dealt with in the Section 106 application.

It all depends on the nature of the job. If the work relates to a ‘new build’ and there is an approved planning permission application, then the VAT rate will normally be zero. For existing properties the rate will normally be standard 20%, however there are some exceptions. Some building projects are 5% for various reasons, these can include barn conversions and work on properties whereby they have been empty and uninhabitable for a long period of time.

We cover all of Northamptonshire and parts of the surrounding counties, please send us an enquiry to check if we cover your area.

Yes we do! Most of the FAQs below continually refer to ‘new builds’ but most of the answers below can be applied to house extensions as well.

Yes, we undertake both domestic and commercial new builds. We work with people building a one-off new build, developers who build houses for a living, and all sizes of construction companies as well.

We generally undertake:

 

Any site clearance, site preparation

Demolition

Excavation and pouring of footings  – all types including traditional, piled or raft foundations.

Masonry up to underside of block and beam, or up to dpc level (excluding any ‘facework’)

Rainwater & Foul drainage within the site

Installation of block and beam – or concrete oversite construction

Laying of stone/hardcore areas for purposes of continuation of the build after groundworks complete, i.e. temporary/permanent road construction

Connection to public sewer see here , or installation of treatment plant where applicable see here.

We’ve been in business since 2004, so over 20 years at the time of writing!

Initially we always need drawings, and preferably by email. Once we have these we can let you know if we can undertake the works and if we have availability. We’ll usually send you a quote that is subject to a site survey, and if the price is within budget then we’ll come out to site to confirm our price.

Groundwork for a new build will typically get done within 4-6 weeks, but sometimes longer for a larger or more complex project.

We prefer to book all inspections ourselves, if you can supply us with phone numbers and reference number etc. If our customer wants to take care of this then that’s fine, we just find that things tend to run more smoothly if we do it.

Not normally, no. If you have planning permission for a new build, then we will normally invoice ‘nil VAT’, though we have to pay VAT on all of our purchases relating to the build, we claim this back later.

Yes there is always 20% VAT on a house extension, and please – don’t ask us to ‘do it for cash’ !

No that’s not a service we supply. In order to give you the best possible service and to maximise our in-house resources, we need to supply all materials, plant and take care of waste disposal etc.

No, we don’t use subcontractors to undertake any of our groundwork. All of our employees employed directly by us, and paid ‘on the books’, they wear our uniform and drive our own logo’d company vehicles. The only time we use subcontractors is when we instruct pilers or bricklayers etc, trades other than ‘groundworkers’.

We tend not to. As a rule we are only on a site for a short period of time, relative to the whole duration of the build. For this reason we wouldn’t normally want to be responsible for the setting up of the site, i.e. fencing it off, putting up the statutory H&S signs, welfare facilities, only for us to have to take it all away again a month or so after starting on site – and then for the contractor who comes after us to have to do it all over again. That said, we are able to supply some aspects of a site set-up at cost, where required. 

Although we tend not to act as Principal Contractors, of course we are responsible for our own Health & Safety on site, as is required by law. This includes preparation of Method Statements and Risk Assessments, training and certification for staff and operators of plant, checks on plant & machinery and general management of our own H&S throughout the project. If you need visibility of any of the above then just ask – and indeed as Principal Contractor it is your duty to ensure we are complaint with respect to all H&S.

We can certainly advise on what we have done in the past, on other jobs. And in many instances, we are experienced enough to advise, and of course our experience will often be more than that of our customers, but not always! From a professional point of view though, we cannot be responsible for design. Strictly speaking, as groundworkers and civil engineers it is our job to carry out works that have been designed by people who do this for a living such as architects and structural engineers. Where such a professional has not been appointed, then we will often be asked to advise on design. But we can only ever advise on what we may have done previously on similar projects. A good example is where we are laying concrete for a haulage yard for example. Strictly speaking the whole design including the material to use, method of laying etc, should be designed by a structural engineer. We can advise as to what we have done elsewhere in the past, but we can never be responsible for design. For more information please see our article on ‘Project Management for New Builds and other construction projects.’

In short, no, this is not a service we offer. That said, we often end up acting as unpaid project managers to a certain extent, when it comes to domestic projects in particular. This will normally include advice given to a customer throughout the build, and liaising with other professionals such as architects, structural engineers, Building Control, warranty providers and other trades such as bricklayers and landscapers etc. But the line between contractor and project manager can often get blurred, for more information please see our article on ‘Project Management for New Builds and other construction projects.’

Absolutely! Please don’t hesitate to ask, we will put you in touch with existing and former customers where they are willing. And you are welcome to visit any of our current sites, with our customer’s permission of course. You can also check out our Google reviews, which are now in excess of 100 genuine 5-star reviews. And we also have case studies that where you can see the story of a project from start to finish. We’ve been about for 20 years now and we’ve only lasted this long due to our commitment to customer service!

They are for discharging into a watercourse, yes. They haven’t been ‘legal’ in this respect as far as Building Regs are concerned for a few years now. But as of 1st January 2020, it will be illegal to use and own one as such even if you inherited it or if it was already installed many years ago. Septic tanks don’t treat sewerage sufficiently to discharge into a watercourse – some of them not all. For a quote for installation of new treatment plant click here.

>4 bedrooms

6 ‘population’ treatment plant

5 bedrooms

8 ‘population’ treatment plant

6 bedrooms

8 ‘population’ treatment plant

7 bedrooms

10 ‘population’ treatment plant


For a 3-bedroom house a ‘5 population’ tank should be installed, also known as a ‘5 person’, ‘5pop’ or ‘5pp’. Treatment plants generally start at ‘6 population’. For every bedroom extra to a 3-bedroom house, an extra ‘population’ is required, so a ‘6 population’ for a 4-bedroom house, a ‘7 population’ for a 5-bedroom house and an ‘8 population’ for a 6-bedroom house, and so on. These are based on average volumes though, so if your usage is particularly high – for example if everybody is having a bath every day – then it won’t hurt to install the next model up. You may also want to plan for any future development or extension to the property. And just to confuse things, treatment plants tend to start at ‘6 population’, there isn’t a 5 population. After 6 population they go up to 8, 10, 12 and then 16 and 20 after that.

They should be serviced as per manufacturer’s guidelines, which is normally once a year. Sorry, this isn’t a service we supply but please click here for a list of companies who service treatment plants.

The Environment Agency’s take on this is that a sewage treatment plant “must be installed and operated in accordance with manufactures guidelines”. And most manufacturers recommend once a year. Make sure your chosen service provider is British Water accredited click here

A standard compressor blower the same as a 50w bulb, the equivalent to about £50/year.

All of our treatment plants are fitted with carbon vents to help minimize smells, so as long as you have the correct size tank, you service it regularly and empty it when required, you shouldn’t normally be able to smell hardly anything at all.

It’s a bit of a case of how long a piece of string is really. There are so many variables, including size of tank required, access to the site, drainage field required or distance to the watercourse. For a quote please click here.

A treatment plant will normally always be ‘full’, in so far as liquid is concerned. So if you lift the lid and it’s full to within 18 inches of the lid, then that’s normal, that doesn’t mean it needs emptying. It’s the sludge that needs emptying (de-sludging). As long as you have the right size tank, as long as you’re using it correctly and not putting any nasties in there and long as you’re not putting rainwater or surface water into it then it should only need emptying once a year, twice at the most.

Absolutely not! No! Never!

Why? A sewage treatment plant is designed to treat ‘foul’ wastewater. If you add rainwater into the mix this increases the flow beyond the size required for the size of the house. The tank will be unlikely to cope during a downpour, causing sewerage to back up due to the increased volume, it will play havoc with the treatment process and it’s illegal under Part H of Building Regulations, which states that foul and rainwater should be discharged separately!

In the event that your rainwater and foul currently go to the same place, we can separate them prior to installation of a new treatment plant. The rainwater should ideally be diverted to soakaways or to a watercourse, with only the foul going into the new Treatment Plant. For a quote click here.

No! It can’t! It should be preferably discharged into a watercourse (stream/river etc) or alternatively into a drainage field/land drainage. If a watercourse is not available, a calculation (percolation test) must be done to ascertain the amount of land drainage required. At this point, it often becomes apparent that the cost of the land drainage will be similar in cost to the installation of the actual treatment plant itself, sometimes more. And so the land drainage often gets skimped on, and often by installing a soakaway instead. But soakaways don’t work, no matter how big they are, and even if they are built with crates. Once they are full, they are full, they are full! Except in the most amazingly draining ground, they will get full very quickly and stay full. Lack of land drainage installed for a treatment plant is one of the main reasons they don’t work. If you have an existing septic tank or treatment plant and the effluent isn’t draining away quickly enough, it’s most likely because of insufficient land drainage. For a quote for any such remedial work click here.

The structure of the treatment plant itself is guaranteed for 25 years. On most types of treatment plants the only moving/serviceable part will be the ‘compressor blower’, this is guaranteed for 2 years. In reality the compressor blower will last for many years, but when it comes to replacing it, cost will normally be about £200 for a new compressor blower.

Yes, you must apply to local Building Control prior to installing a new Treatment Plant, and everything must conform to Drainage and Waste Disposal 2002 edition Part H-H2. However, Building Control will only normally need a few days’ notice prior to the start of the job. The homeowner can instruct Building Control, otherwise we can take care of instructing them and paying their fees etc. For a quote click here.

As a domestic customer you are likely to be exempt from obtaining a permit from the Environment Agency as long as you can abide by their ‘General Binding Rules for Small Sewage Discharges’. For the full document click here.

For a summary see below:

The sewerage must be from ‘domestic’ use. For commercial sewerage you will need to apply to the Environment Agency for a permit. However, some small domestic-type businesses can be included in the General Binding Rules, such as a pub or a small nursing home. In this instance the waste would normally be in proportion to that of a domestic property.

You must not pollute the surface water or groundwater or stream, and this is generally achieved by having a treatment plant installed properly, and which conforms to BS EN 12566, as our works do. For a quote for a new installation click here.

The system should be installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s specification, and the system should be maintained as per the manufacturer’s specification.

The treatment plant should be emptied in accordance with the manufacturer’s specification and should be emptied by a competent company. For more info click here.

If you sell your property you must give any prospective or actual purchaser full written details of the treatment plant fitted, and notify them that they will be discharging sewerage under the General Binding Rules for Small Sewerage Discharges’

You must not discharge effluent within 30 metres of a public sewer. However, if there is a public sewer within 30 metres, then you shouldn’t be installing a treatment plant anyway, except for under exceptional circumstances. We also carry out sewer connections onto public sewers, for a quote for a connection to the public sewer click here.

Your old septic tank must be emptied and decommissioned and should not be left in a state whereby it could continue to pollute the watercourse.

As well as adhering to all of the rules above, the two sets of rules below are as important. One set deals with treatment plant which discharge into a drainage field/land drainage, the second set deal with a treatment plant that discharges into a watercourse (river or stream).

Treatment plants which discharge into drainage field/land drainage:

You must not discharge more than 2,000 litres (2 cubic metres) per day into the ground. To put this into perspective, emptying a bath into the treatment plant will normally generate about 80 litres of discharge from the treatment plant, and flushing the toilet will normally generate about 10-5 litres. A 4-bedroom house will normally generate about 900 litres a day, a 6-bedroom house 1,200 litres a day and a 10-bedroom house about 1,800 litres a day.

The treatment plant should discharge into a suitable drainage field/land drainage

The treatment plant must not discharge within a groundwater Source Protection Zone 1 [SPZ1] and must not be within 50 metres of a well, spring or borehole that is used to supply water for domestic consumption.

The treatment plant must not discharge within 50 metres of a Special Area of Conservation, a Special Protection Area, a Ramsar site or a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The treatment plant must not discharge into ancient woodland.

Treatment plants which discharge into a watercourse (river or stream)

You must not discharge more than 5,000 litres per day into a watercourse. 

The treatment plant must not discharge within 500 metres of a Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Ramsar site, Biological Site of Scientific Interest, freshwater pearl mussel population, designated bathing water or protected shellfish water. Nor within 200 metres of an aquatic local nature reserve, or 50 metres of a chalk river or aquatic local wildlife site.

The watercourse must be flowing at all times of year, not just in the winter. However, the watercourse may occasionally run dry in times of exceptionally dry weather.

You must not discharge into an enclosed lake or pond. It must be a watercourse which has ‘flow’.

When discharging into a watercourse, you must also discharge partially into a drainage field/land drainage within 10 metres of the watercourse, to aid with drainage during seasonal changes.

A vehicle crossover, also commonly referred to as a dropped kerb, is a section of footpath (technically known as a ‘footway’!) whereby the normal road kerbs that stand 150mm (6”) above the road (technically known as the carriageway!) are lowed to similar level to the road, to allow a vehicle to easily drive over them, to gain vehicular access to a property. As well as lowering the kerbs, a vehicle crossover requires that the whole footway between the new ‘dropped kerbs’ and the boundary with the customer’s property, be constructed to a higher standard than a footway is normally constructed to.

Yes, you will need permission from Highways, see link here for Northants County Council https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/parking/apply-dropped-kerb In the case of a new build, you may have permission included within your planning permission.

Most of the time, yes, but not always! Your application will be considered based on various aspects of road safety, traffic flow, and impact on pedestrians, and a whole host of other factors.

Highways don’t ordinarily grant permission for a second vehicle crossover to a domestic property, especially if they are both to be within close proximity to each other. But of course on a very large property where the two crossovers will be some distance apart, then permission is more likely to be granted. And on a commercial property, permission for a second crossover is much more likely to be granted.  

For starters, this may sound like an odd one to put into our FAQs, but we thought it worth a mention, as illegally installed crossovers are more common than you may think.

 

Some people don’t know they need permission, and of course some people just don’t care! One thing to bear in mind though, is that every County Council Highways department (the ones giving out permission for crossovers and inspecting the work etc) employ Highways Inspectors whose job it is not only to inspect legally-installed crossovers, but also to look out for illegally-installed ones. These inspectors are usually very familiar with the areas they cover, and when they spot an illegal crossover they will issue an enforcement notice requiring the crossover be put back to its original state. What’s more, the remedial work has to be done by an approved contractor, and Highways also have the power to instruct a company themselves to reinstate the original footway, and then to charge you for the work. All of this is in addition to a sizeable fine.

Two reasons:

 

  1. The level of a footway is usually somewhere around 150mm (6”) above the carriageway, therefore when we install ‘dropped kerbs’ where the footway meets the carriageway, this puts the original footway above the top of the new kerbs. Of course for a vehicle crossover, the footway has to be at the same level as the kerbs.
  2. An existing footway will only have been constructed for and be suitable for pedestrians. Of course, a vehicle may occasionally drive onto a footway, or may park on it, rightly or wrongly. But for continuous vehicular traffic, a footway has to be installed to a higher standard. That includes a thicker layer of sub-base (such as Type 1 MOT) and then a thicker amount of tarmac, to take easily take the weight of vehicles.

All Councils are different, but generally contractors need to be approved by them, or they have to tick various boxes, firstly they hold £10million public liability insurance (as opposed to the usual £2million). And that they hold the correct NRSWA accreditations. These are accreditations that their employees and supervisors hold personally and relate to working in the Highway. It means they are trained in in detecting underground services prior to excavation, they are aware of traffic management including setting up the appropriate signage and setting up the site correctly and safely, and that they are aware of the required specifications for different types reinstatement for crossovers. JW Clark Ltd are approved contractors for Northamptonshire, we have the relevant insurance and our employees and supervisors hold the required accreditations.

The manhole cover can be incorporated into the new crossover as long as it is suitable for traffic, it should normally be a B125-type cover, as a minimum. However, a lot of manhole covers in the pavement are suitable for pedestrian traffic only. We can often obtain a heavier-duty cover but sometimes we will have to go to the relevant utility provider, such as BT or Virgin Media for example. And it’s not only the cover that needs to be suitable for vehicles, the chamber or manhole underneath needs to be suitable for the weight of vehicles as well. If this needs upgrading then the cost for the utility provider to do so, will often be very expensive and sometimes cost-prohibitive. Make sure you include details of any such covers in your enquiry to us, including sending us a picture of it, please.  

It certainly will! Moving a lamppost will normally be cost-prohibitive, but it may not even be possible to move it – the lamppost is there and in that position for a reason, it might not be possible to move it, say, 10 metres down the road. You will need to speak to the owner of the lamppost whoever that is, this will often be Highways and so this will normally be picked up by them at the application stage.

You would not normally get permission from Highways to remove a healthy tree, for the purposes of installing a vehicle crossover.

They generally take 2-3 days from start to finish, however a particularly small one could get done in as little as 1 day. But prior to doing the actual work, getting the Section 184 Licence takes a lot longer. The process of getting the Licence and getting permission to use it, will ordinarily take a month or so, with some taking a lot longer, especially on a traffic sensitive road.

Not initially, no. If you fill out the form here we will have all the information we need. But we will come out to site in the event that a customer wishes to go ahead, and prior to the work being started.