"Application for Use of Public Traffic Areas" - Questions

Hello,

in a few weeks, the construction of our prefabricated basement will begin, and about 4 weeks later, the house will be erected. For this, due to the crane and large trucks, the street – a dead end – must be completely closed for several hours and the access to the street must be marked with a restricted parking ban. This was communicated by the site manager.
Therefore, I have already contacted the public order office and received an application for the use of public traffic areas.
Of course, I could fill out the application myself, as I am the responsible person, and the site manager does not want to be listed as responsible. I also have no idea yet how the procedure with putting up signs etc. would be.
Now I would be interested to know if you have gained any experience in this regard and how you proceeded?
It would also be possible to commission a company, which probably is not cheap.
I would appreciate interesting contributions.

Best regards
Jochen

Hi Jochen,

you should definitely fill out the application in time.

The application must be approved before construction begins. Otherwise, the people can close off the construction site for you. At the time, I was late - it cost me several phone calls and some coaxing towards the person in charge at the OA until he relented out of pity.

At the time, I attached a proposal with a drawing of how parking bans etc. could look, where trucks / cranes etc. are very likely to stand. The OA mostly adopted it as is (the proposal was well thought-out).

I picked up signs (simple) and sign stands (really heavy/high weight, bulky --> trailer, large station wagon) in good time at the city utilities depot. It didn’t cost much (the deposit was significantly higher), but it’s an enormous lugging effort. Setting them up is actually easier than the lugging. Two to three people to help are definitely advisable overall, depending on the quantity.

A company that does this kind of thing: They exist everywhere, and they’re actually not cheap (several hundred euros). Considering the effort + lugging, today I would make the topping-out ceremony significantly smaller but outsource the signage.

Ultimately, the specification comes from the OA as to exactly which signs need to be placed where. This (= approved application with specifications) is also a condition for borrowing the signs.

Best regards
Thorsten

Hello Thorsten,

thank you very much for your detailed response.
Our construction manager wrote to me yesterday that he could hand over the whole procedure to the crane company, but it would cost between 750 and 1000 euros. These are, of course, additional costs that were not initially anticipated.
As you wrote, the effort is quite high, and the more important point is that you yourself do not bear any responsibility should anything happen. At least that’s how I understood it. I have to take care of it in the next few days. Fortunately, there are still at least 6 weeks until the start of construction. So I still have some buffer.

Best regards
Jochen

I would like to point out that it can be difficult to completely block off a dead-end street and thereby "trap" residents and guests.

I strongly recommend that you seek a discussion with the authorities in advance. I can well imagine that it is not as simple as you think.

At the latest, when the fire department has no alternative access, it will probably become difficult.

...or you manage with a partial closure.

In our municipality, it was such that as a private person I could not commission the road closure at all.

The "traffic sign plan" must be created by the executing company (crane company) and submitted directly to the regulatory office for approval.

After consulting with the regulatory office, the approval costs about €70 - €75.
The crane or construction companies took over the signage and charged between €200-€250 per closure. It can certainly be cheaper, but then there's no stress.

Hi,

I believe the permit also cost us about 70-80, from what I remember.

We live at the end of a dead-end street.

Regarding the fire department: No Through Traffic sign as close to the house as possible....

I always informed the former residents above in a timely manner before any measures were taken, using a friendly letter, pointing out inconveniences and restrictions, and asking for understanding as a precaution.
When the shell was complete, all the former residents of the street were invited to the topping-out ceremony, of which >90% also attended.

By the way, this was the foundation for a mutually good neighborhood.

At that time, all residents voluntarily refrained from parking in the entire street when work/deliveries were done at our place (of course, only on a larger scale, foundation slab, house construction). Great!

Best regards
Thorsten

PS: I consider 750-1000 euros for external signage contracting to be a very high price. Depending on the scope, I consider 350-700 reasonable....