Can you cut a newly paved Mesa street for a sewer or water repair? City Code 9-1-6

Restoration fee (A). A permittee pays a pavement restoration fee with any Right-of-Way Permit to cut into, excavate, open, bore, trench or disturb street pavement within five years after the city accepts street construction that includes new pavement, renovation or reconstruction at that location. The amount is in the city's fee schedule. It is paid before the permit issues unless a written agreement allows payment after the cut, and it is not offset by license or franchise fees.

Two-year ban (B). The City Engineer "shall not approve" a permit to cut, excavate, open, bore, trench or disturb pavement for two years after acceptance of street construction that includes new pavement, renovation, reconstruction, or street maintenance. Exceptions may be authorized only if:

1. 1a verifiable emergency endangers life or property,
2. 2essential utility service is interrupted,
3. 3utility or other service for buildings is required and no other feasible means exists, or
4. 4a city, county, state or federal regulation requires the cut.

Second-year option (C). Between one and two years after acceptance, if the City Engineer finds, on the permittee's evidence, that milling and overlaying costs substantially less than routing around, the permittee may choose to cut and perform the mill and overlay in (E).

Conditions on an exception (D). Pay the restoration fee and repair the pavement to right-of-way standards.

Mill and overlay (E). A cut permitted within a year of construction requires renovating the street by mill and overlay or inlay across at least the full width of every impacted lane (the outside lane to the curb). The renovation reaches at least 50 feet each way on arterials and 25 feet each way on collector and residential streets, or as the City Engineer directs. One pothole under two square feet is excused.

• Acceptance. The date the city accepts the street construction. The two-year and five-year clocks run from it.
• Mill and overlay. Grinding off the top of the pavement and laying a new surface.
• Arterial and collector streets. Higher-volume roads, as opposed to residential streets.

Anyone whose Right-of-Way Permit would cut Mesa street pavement. It sits on top of the right-of-way permit. It does not restrict work on the lot, and it does not decide who pays for a broken sewer section, which 8-4-8 answers.

A new restaurant on a freshly paved arterial. The plumber needs a sewer tap and the pavement was accepted a year ago. The only way in is under the street. The city may treat that as service where no other feasible means exists, and the permit then comes with the fee and a full-width mill and overlay reaching 50 feet each way.

A cut in year four. Nothing bars the cut, and the restoration fee still applies.

The edge case. A road was slurry sealed last year. The ban counts street maintenance too, so the two years start from the maintenance acceptance, not only new paving.

1. 1Check the city's Pavement Cut Restrictions map, which shows streets under a restriction for the current and next fiscal year. If your street is not clearly answered there, call the Mesa Transportation Department at 480-644-2160, the number the map lists for schedule questions.
2. 2If you are inside two years, plan another route, document which exception applies, or ask the City Engineer whether a bore under the pavement counts. The text bans permits to cut, excavate, open, bore, trench or disturb pavement, so we do not treat boring as a way around it.
3. 3Budget for the restoration fee if you are inside five years, and ask for the amount in the fee schedule.
4. 4Price the mill and overlay if the cut falls within a year of construction.
5. 5Fold the answer into the right-of-way permit application.

• "A permit gets you a cut anywhere." The City Engineer cannot approve one inside two years except for the four exceptions.
• "Boring avoids the rule." The text covers cutting, excavating, opening, boring and trenching.
• "The ban only covers new streets." Street maintenance restarts the clock too.
• "The fee is small print." It is due before the permit unless a written agreement says otherwise.