CHAPTER 233
AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9, DELAWARE CODE, BY ADDING THERETO A NEW CHAPTER 27 CONCERNING TRENCHES AND EXCAVATION IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (two-thirds of all Members elected to each Branch thereof concurring therein):
Section 1. Title 9, Delaware Code is hereby amended by adding thereto a new Chapter 27 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 27 TRENCHES AND EXCAVATIONS
§ 2701.
(a) The Levy Courts of New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County, and each incorporated municipality in each of the said counties, in order to provide for the safety of the citizens of the various counties and the State of Delaware, shall adopt and promulgate a code containing suitable rules and regulations controlling, regulating, and supervising all trench, ditch, channel, shaft and other excavation work involving depths and widths which present a hazard to the workmen performing the job.
() The Levy Courts of New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County, and each incorporated municipality in each of the said counties, are hereby authorized, empowered, and directed on or before January 1, 1962, to adopt and promulgate the above described safety code for trenches and excavation. Such code shall contain suitable rules and regulations controlling, regulating, and supervising all trenching, ditching, channel, shaft and other excavation work performed, constructed, or installed in or on any property or State owned lands by any builder, contractor, State agency, or private citizen.
(a) Provided, further, that each municipality may elect to adopt the code of the Levy Court in its county and, provided further that each municipality may adopt additional regulations as required by its own particular conditions, but that in no case shall the rules and regulations be any less restrictive than those adopted by the Levy Courts of the three (3) respective counties.
(d) The Levy Courts of New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County, and each incorporated municipality in each of the said counties, are hereby authorized and empowered to fix a reasonable fee for the issuance of a permit for work under the code which is to be performed under their respective jurisdictions. Contract work in which several applications of the code will be performed under one agreement shall be considered as one permit.
(e) The code to be promulgated in accordance with this Act shall be determined by the aforementioned Levy Courts and municipalities after consultation with and in cooperation with other State agencies involved in excavation work, contractors' organizations, labor organizations, and any other interested agency or group which shall be notified by means of public announcement of the intent to formulate such a code.
(f) Enforcement of the code when adopted by the various aforementioned Levy Courts and municipalities shall rest with those Levy Courts and municipalities, except that enforcement of the code with respect to the work of a State, City, or County agency, whether by contract or its own forces, may be delegated to that agency.
(g) Each code promulgated and adopted under this Act shall contain a penalty clause of not more than a $50.00 fine and not less than a $25.00 fine for each infraction with such penalty continued on a daily basis until the terms of the Code are complied with.
(h) The Levy Courts of New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County, and each incorporated municipality in each of the said counties, are hereby authorized and empowered to revise in accordance with the terms of this Act the codes adopted on or before January 1, 1962, at any time subsequent thereto when changing conditions and situations within their county or municipality may require such revision.
Approved December 6, 1961.
Note: Codified as Chapter 84, Title 16, Del. Code.