WHEREAS the Ministry of Highway and Infrastructure’s Roadside Management Manual states that the top of a pipeline shall be not less than 1.2 metres below the roadway surface, and not less than 0.75 metres below the surface of the ditch bottom, whichever is the greater depth. This depth is not adequate should a municipality need to build the road above that installed pipe or any other underground facility in the future;

WHEREAS many municipalities have longstanding policies in place requiring pipelines or any other underground facility to be installed at a depth to which construction if required on the road above the pipe would be safe and far less likely to require the pipe or any other underground facility to be lowered;

WHEREAS once a pipeline or any other underground facility is installed the municipality must then abide by each and every condition placed on it by the owner of the pipeline or any other underground facility in order to make necessary alterations/or construction of the road within the municipality's own road allowance, in an effort to provide an expected level of service to its ratepayers. In following each and every condition or having to wait for the pipeline or any other underground facility to be lowered it may in many cases delay or possibly cancel that construction project;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the provincial government to have the depths of pipeline or any other underground facility installations be changed to a more suitable depth.

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