Had a lawn - now a bombsite !!!

[Mdotflorida]

We had a powercut yesterday for 8 hours. Seems an 11Kv cable had developed a fault and the whole estate was out. Finally they traced the problem to the main feed cable and more specifically to the part of the cable that is buried under my front lawn !!!

This morning they started digging and now I have a trench 15 feet long x 6 feet wide x 6 feet deep in the lawn along with all the soil and debris that was removed piled up on the lawn next to it.

They had to extend the trench to make the cable good and this entailed cutting a 4 feet square of asphalt from the driveway.

The foreman said that someone would be along to make good but he didn't actually explain what he termed "make good".

Do you think it's reasonable to expect the lawn to be re-turfed rather than left to re-establish itself. what about the driveway. It was a single layer of asphalt with no cracking or low spots and now it's going to have a patched area.

As they didn't ask for permission to dig, I assume it's their right to access. Does anyone know what my rights are regarding comeback if I am not satisfied with the repairs.

Thanks Jeff

 

[Digit]

One for Jake I think.

 

[Evergreen]

Jeff

I'll be interested in any replies you get because I also have a supply cable running under my front garden to other houses. I seem to remember the Electrickery people always have the right to get at the cable in an emergency and I'm not supposed to grow shrubs or trees over it. Which is interesting because one of the previous owners planted a substantial beech hedge over it!

I suspect that "making good" will only mean the standard that you see on footpaths and highways i.e. a scattering of grass seed over a lumpy surface on the lawn and patching the asphalt. Hope I'm wrong.

Regards.

 

[Anonymous]

_____

 

[Mdotflorida]

These are a couple of before and after images. The double garage on the left is my workshop and to make matters even worse, you can see that is now on the wrong side of the hole to be able to get in.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2204/244 ... f516_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/244 ... 1e1f6b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2195/244 ... f9d0_b.jpg

Jeff

 

[OLD]

We had our overhead system replaced by buried cable recently and the electric company could be forced to make good properly or pay some compensation so find some contact details and get in touch with your requirements remember the ground will drop over time as the soil consolidates.

 

[tnimble]

What 'make good' meant when we (many many tears ago when I was with the local about t be privatised electricity , gas and trafiic lights department (Netherlands)) had to dug up a cable was shoving the ground back into the hole and throw any pavement tiles back to the approximate location in a somewhat random manner. After a while another team would make it a bit better. This has to do that if you would do a decent job directly you would again have a bombsite some weeks later. But don't except to receive a price winning lawn back I reckon.

 

[beech1948]

Hi,
After they have backfilled the big problem will be that unless it is properly consolidated it will sink over the next 6 to 12 months. Sometimes this can be as much as 6 inches. The team doing the making good will have one standard and you will have your own and the two will not be the same.

I would suggest you get in touch with your customer service people and nstart to agitate now about standard and timeline and length of responsibility. Failing that be ready to complain.

regards
Alan

 

[wizer]

I wish they'd come and dig up my drive (4 car driv with dodgy bodged concrete laid everywhere.)

 

[Rich]

I wish I had a driveway, on my estate you have a driveway and small back garden or no driveway and a long back garden, I have the latter, which enabled me to build my workshop, however the downside is I have had 4 vehicles vandalised, being parked on the road, one of them was a 5 series BMW, I won't be buying a decent vehicle again while I live here!
Rich.

 

[Jake]

The have an 'easement' over your land, which allows them to come onto it and do the necessary things to maintain their cable. Page 8 of this is a kind of code of conduct they are supposed to abide by.

In theory, I would think that your right is to have the land reinstated to near enough the same as it was before they did the work, but whether you will be able to get that out of them, I don't know. By near enough I mean that if the drive was pavers, they couldn't tarmac the hole, but I don't think you could object to a tarmac drive being patch-repaired in tarmac (assuming it was done to a similar standard as what's there already).

You are entitled not to have it sink as others are warning, so keep an eye on it and complain again if it starts to do that!

 

[Mdotflorida]

Thanks for the info guys.

Part 1 of "making good" seems to have happened today whilst I was at work. The lawn has been flattened and covered with topsoil. Yet to see what they are going to do with the driveway.

Jeff