Commentary on Sections Miscellaneous Section 24 Duty of undertakers to co-operate with authorities and other undertakers
74.Section 24 of the Act amends section 119 of the 1991 Act so as to augment the general duty on undertakers to co-operate with road works authorities in executing road works. It does this with five new subsections: (1A), (1B), (1C), (2A) and (2B).
75.Under subsection (1A), undertakers must have regard to all information in the SRWR relating to road works which they are carrying out, or plan to carry out.
76.Subsection (1B) requires undertakers to assist the Commissioner to fulfil the duty to keep the SRWR. It also requires the undertaker to keep this information ‘under surveillance’, which in practice means that the undertaker should update and use the SRWR as its daily planning tool when planning and carrying out road works.
77.Under subsection (1C) any persons granted consent by a road works authority under Section 109 of the 1991 Act are exempt from these requirements – the road works authority must do this on their behalf.
78.Subsection (2A) requires undertakers to comply with any direction given to them by the Commissioner in meeting the duties imposed on them by subsections (1A) and (1B), and in relation to the relevant code of practice.
79.If the Commissioner thinks that an undertaker is failing to do this, he can ask for more information from the undertaker by issuing a further direction under subsection (2B).