Opening an access to the road: the operational study and who accepts the works

It is Chapter 9.7 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, inside the infrastructure and environment volume. For public-road access projects it adopts the technical specifications in force required by the Highways and Transportation Authority and the Department of Transportation and Public Works, including every element, requirement and detail in the current versions of the codes and regulations they promulgate, adopted by OGPe, and any standard, circular or interpretation under them previously approved by OGPe. This guide is about road accesses; electricity, potable water and sanitary sewer go under different chapters and have their own guides.

The chapter applies to access-control works projects on public roads. The pre-consulta and the construction permit application are filed with OGPe; the operational study is required and must be delivered by the project owner for approval of the accesses that will form part of the development. The ACT and the DTOP reserve the right to inspect, with their authorised personnel, the construction or reconstruction of any access or other work or installation built within a public road’s right of way or less than twenty-five metres from it.

• Complying with the technical specifications in force required by the ACT and the DTOP, adopted by OGPe; and, where codes and regulations conflict, with the provision that best guarantees safety, life, health and property.Verified against the official source
• That the construction plans bear the responsible professional’s professional seal and signature; and, where more than one professional or designer participates, that each sheet show the compliance certification, signature and professional seal in original of all those responsible.Verified against the official source
• Delivering an operational study — access or traffic, depending on the project’s size — under the Guidelines for the Preparation of Operational Access and Traffic Studies for Puerto Rico in force.Verified against the official source
• If relocating an existing road is proposed: filing one plan for the relocation and another for the proposed road’s design, with profiles illustrated on both, and a survey plan with the new easements to be constituted and the existing ones to be cancelled.Verified against the official source
• Not beginning the alteration or change proposed in an amendment until the new construction permit is obtained from OGPe.Verified against the official source
• Once the Permiso Único is issued, asking the DTOP to accept the built work; and, where the work includes infrastructure to be maintained or operated by the DTOP, filing the documents for its transfer, conveyance and warranty and constituting the applicable rights of way.Verified against the official source

• For the pre-consulta: site plans including the project’s location, and a letter from the owner or their authorised representative clearly explaining the scope; if the project will be staged, a work programme with each stage’s start and end dates.
• A digital file of the proposed plans to scale, north-oriented and in DXF format, and construction plans sealed and signed, with complementary documents including the date of preparation, the responsible professional’s name, postal address and telephone numbers, technical specifications, construction and equipment details, computations where necessary and a legend of every symbol.
• A certified survey plan of the lot tying its limits to identifiable points and naming abutters, or a segregation plan with individual areas and boundaries, a current topographic plan, a final grading plan and a general layout of the works.
• A location plan to scale showing the project’s exact location, the roads affected and the project’s centre in coordinates, with identification of the circulation roads in the area of influence including the exact kilometre marker.
• Copies of the resolutions, agreements, recommendations, comments and other documents of the Planning Board, other government agencies and autonomous municipalities in relation to the project, or a statement that no document additional to those submitted exists.
• A Property Registry certification evidencing that the applicant is owner or co-owner of the land, which may be substituted by a plain copy of the deed of sale; and a copy of the Adjudicative Board’s Resolution approving the location where applicable.
• An operational study: an access study — recommended for small projects that may affect the intersections formed by the proposed accesses and not necessarily the road system — or a traffic study, which includes the operational evaluation of those intersections and of the most important ones near the development.

1. 1

   Step 1: Which standard rules, and which wins if they clash

   For public-road access projects, the technical specifications in force required by the Highways and Transportation Authority and the Department of Transportation and Public Works are adopted. Those specifications include every element, requirement and detail in the current versions of the codes and regulations the ACT and DTOP promulgate, adopted by OGPe, and any standard, circular or interpretation under them previously approved by OGPe. And then the tie-breaker: where codes and regulations conflict, the provision that best guarantees safety, life, health and property must always be met. Worth noting it is not worded like the electrical works chapter’s rule, which says the most demanding prevails; we report what each chapter says and do not harmonise them.

2. 2

   Step 2: The pre-consulta: two documents

   The first stop is short. The pre-consulta for access-control works needs site plans including the project’s location, and a letter from the owner or their authorised representative clearly explaining the project’s scope. If the project will be developed in stages, a work programme including each stage’s start and end dates must be filed. Nothing else.

3. 3

   Step 3: The construction permit and what the plans must show

   Here the list grows long, and it is written for the responsible professional more than for the owner. The plans must illustrate the existing conditions and installations in the works area, using the site or lot described in the site plans as the geographic frame of reference. Among the details the chapter lists, without limitation: true or geographic north; public roads — carreteras, autopistas, expresos, calles, caminos, callejones; sidewalks and planting areas; boundaries, segregation, the Planning Board’s qualification and territorial limits; natural and artificial water bodies; buildings and structures; overhead or underground transmission, sub-transmission and electrical distribution lines; profiles of those lines where ground levels are altered; public lighting systems, telecommunications lines, water pipes, gas lines and antennas; easements; the dimensions of the elements of the cross-section of the road in front of the project; the exact kilometre marker of the roads in the area of influence; traffic signs, pavement marking, kerbing and traffic lights existing or to be provided; road works details and the preliminary location of water pipes, manholes, grates and drains within a radius of one hundred metres of the property’s limits; cuts of existing islands; existing bus or público stops; identifiable elevation points near the project; the materials and type of existing pavement and the proposed section with base and sub-base; and longitudinal and transverse profiles of the affected roads.

4. 4

   Step 4: Ownership and the ACT’s notes

   Two requirements that are not drawings and are best not left to the end. First, a Property Registry certification evidencing ownership or co-ownership of the land where the project is proposed; this certification may be substituted by a plain copy of the deed of sale showing ownership, and a copy of the Adjudicative Board’s Resolution approving the location must also be included where applicable. Second, the notes required by the ACT, plus other necessary notes that explain the details in the drawings; apply to the design to improve safety and facilitate construction; establish the project owner’s contribution to the ACT through OGPe; establish the ACT’s easement requirements; detail the works the owner will carry out for the project’s construction and connection; and describe the improvement works the ACT requests. The regulation names that owner contribution to the ACT but prints no amount, so we publish none.

5. 5

   Step 5: Relocating an existing road

   The plans must clearly specify any proposal to relocate existing roads. Where a project proposes relocating an existing road, one plan for the relocation and another for the proposed road’s design must be filed. Profiles must be illustrated on both the relocation plans and the proposed road’s plans. And a survey plan must also be filed showing the new easements to be constituted and the existing ones to be cancelled, as the ACT’s easements regulation establishes.

6. 6

   Step 6: Access study or traffic study

   An operational study is required and must be delivered by the project owner for approval of the accesses that will form part of the development. The study may be an access study or a traffic study, under the Guidelines for the Preparation of Operational Access and Traffic Studies for Puerto Rico in force. The regulation distinguishes the two: an access study is the one recommended for small projects, which may have a significant impact on the intersections formed by the proposed accesses and not, necessarily, on the road system. A traffic study is the one that includes the operational evaluation of the intersections formed by the proposed accesses and of the most important intersections located near the development.

7. 7

   Step 7: Amending the plans without stopping the works

   Construction plans certified under the Regulation’s provisions may be amended before or after the works have begun, provided the professional files an amendment request with an Explanatory Memorial at OGPe. The same procedure followed for the construction permit application of the plans accompanying the original request must be met. And the condition that decides it: the particular alteration or change proposed in the amendment is not begun until the new construction permit is obtained from OGPe.

8. 8

   Step 8: Who accepts the works at the end: the DTOP

   This is the point that causes most confusion. Once OGPe issues the project’s Permiso Único, based on the inspector’s certification that the work complies with the plans, specifications, regulations and applicable laws, and any other certification or requirement previously established by the ACT in its codes and regulations, the owner or their authorised representative shall ask the DTOP to accept the built work. The ACT and the DTOP reserve the right to inspect, with their authorised personnel, the construction or reconstruction of any access or other work or installation built within a public road’s right of way or less than twenty-five metres from it. Where the work includes infrastructure to be maintained or operated by the DTOP, the documents for its transfer, conveyance and warranty to the DTOP must be filed and the applicable rights of way constituted. The DTOP shall accept the built work once construction deficiencies, if any, are corrected. And in every case where the DTOP finds the built work departs from the plans and specifications certified before OGPe, and from applicable regulations and laws, it must initiate the corresponding administrative process or the procedure applying before the Inspector General.

The pre-consulta, the construction permit application and plan amendments are filed with OGPe. The technical specifications and design notes come from the ACT and the DTOP. Acceptance of the built work is requested from the DTOP, once OGPe has issued the Permiso Único based on the inspector’s certification. The ACT and the DTOP may inspect any access or work within a public road’s right of way or less than twenty-five metres from it.

• Believing that with OGPe’s Permiso Único the work is accepted: acceptance comes from the DTOP.
• Skipping the pre-consulta, which asks only for site plans and a letter from the owner explaining the scope.
• Not delivering the operational study, or delivering an access study where a traffic study was needed.
• Omitting the work programme with each stage’s start and end dates where the project is staged.
• Filing without the Property Registry certification or the copy of the deed that substitutes it.
• Forgetting the notes the ACT requires, including the one establishing the owner’s contribution to the ACT.
• Relocating a road with a single plan, without the proposed road’s plan or the easement survey plan.
• Beginning an amendment’s change before obtaining the new construction permit from OGPe.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov

• Department of Transportation and Public Works

  dtop

  www.dtop.pr.gov