A road authority that creates a trip hazard through reconstruction works and fails to rectify it despite being on notice of its existence and having retained funds and available personnel to do so breaches its non-delegable duty of care, even where the hazard is of relatively small dimensions (10-15mm). The authority bears an evidentiary onus to establish exculpatory economic or resource circumstances. A pedestrian who walks normally looking ahead and fails to observe a small lip in a footpath is not guilty of contributory negligence, as the law allows for momentary inadvertence.
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