Menasha street excavation bonds.
$100 flat.
Before the City of Menasha issues a permit to open or excavate a street, alley, sidewalk, or other public way, the applicant has to secure the restoration. Under Menasha Code Sec. 6-2-3(f)(3)(c), a contractor may file and keep in effect a $10,000 surety bond with the City Clerk. Ours is $100 flat for a term.
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How much does a Menasha street excavation bond cost?
$100 at the $10,000 amount, the same for every applicant.
From application to street-opening permit.
Menasha will not issue an excavation permit until the restoration is secured, and for a contractor that means this bond on file with the City Clerk. Here is the whole process:
Apply online
Your business details, the owner and contact, and an effective date. The $10,000 amount is already set by ordinance — there is nothing to size and no financial statement to attach.
Pay & e-sign
The premium is $100 flat for a term. Pay and e-sign, and most applications issue right after purchase.
File with the City Clerk
Receive the executed bond with its power of attorney, payable to the City of Menasha. File it with the City Clerk, then submit your permit application, plan or diagram, and certificate of liability insurance to Public Works.
What it is and who needs it.
What the Menasha excavation bond guarantees
Title 6, Chapter 2 of the Menasha Code of Ordinances governs streets and sidewalks. Under Sec. 6-2-3(a), no person, partnership, or corporation — or their agents, employees, or contractors — may make any opening or excavation in a public street, alley, way, ground, sidewalk, or City-owned easement without a permit from the Department of Public Works, and a permit is required before any excavation, barricading, or construction in the street right-of-way. Permits are issued through the City Engineering Department on an approved plan, diagram, or signed statement of the location and nature of the opening, and each permit is valid for thirty days from approval.
Before a permit issues, Sec. 6-2-3(f)(1) requires the applicant to sign a statement promising to indemnify the City and its officers against accidents and damage from the work, to fill and make safe every opening, to restore the pavement as near as possible to its prior condition and maintain it for one year, to pay fines for violating the street-opening rules, and to repair damage to existing improvements. If the City elects to make the repair itself, the permittee pays the cost of the repair and one year of maintenance.
That promise has to be secured. Sec. 6-2-3(f)(3)(b) sets a small per-permit cash deposit with the City Treasurer, scaled to the surface being opened; Sec. 6-2-3(f)(3)(c) lets a contractor instead file with the City Clerk, and keep in effect, a $10,000 surety bond conditioned on the timely and faithful performance of all conditions prescribed by law and all laws and ordinances applicable to all permits issued to that person. In current practice the City’s Right-of-Way page states that contractors must submit a $10,000 License and Permit Bond, so for a contractor the bond is the working route, and one bond carries every permit you pull.
It is a three-party arrangement — you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the City of Menasha (the obligee). The exposure runs longer than the 30-day permit: under Sec. 6-2-3(f)(4), if the Director of Public Works finds the work has become defective within two years of completion, written notice goes to the contractor or its surety, and one of them must repair the defect or reimburse the City. If the surety pays, you repay the surety — it is not insurance for your business. Faulty work left uncorrected after notice can also cost you the right to obtain a street-opening permit for a year under Sec. 6-2-3(f)(2).
Two points trip up first-time applicants. First, this bond is not the liability requirement: Sec. 6-2-3(e) separately requires public liability and property damage insurance naming the City, and the City’s permit page asks for a certificate listing Menasha as an additional insured. Second, public utilities under Public Service Commission jurisdiction are exempt from filing the bond under Sec. 6-2-3(f)(3)(d), but their contractors and subcontractors are not — if you dig for a utility, you file your own.
You need this bond if you are
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the $10,000 bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
The term is set on the carrier’s application; the premium covers the period shown there.
Renew before the expiry date to keep the bond in force: the license, permit or contract it backs expects continuous coverage.
How to file it
File with the City Clerk. Receive the executed bond with its power of attorney, payable to the City of Menasha. File it with the City Clerk, then submit your permit application, plan or diagram, and certificate of liability insurance to Public Works.
What sets the price
The premium is fixed at $100 at the $10,000 amount for every applicant: the carrier’s rate book prices this bond by the form, not by your credit or your business profile.
No credit check.
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual application fields — your entity type, business address, owner and contact, and the effective date. The $10,000 amount is locked by ordinance and the premium is $100 flat. Free until issued.
Start the application →Common questions.
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Get the bond your Menasha street permit is waiting on.
Public Works will not issue the excavation permit without it. $100 flat, no credit check, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.