Utility companies have a legal obligation to reinstate the road surface to an acceptable standard. That standard is set by the state of the road that they never touched.
The problem lies in the fact that its the councils responsibility to ensure that they do so. Fines can be issued, or the council can make good the road surface and charge the company that failed to do so.
In this time of money being tight, you'd think councils would be only to willing to issue such fines. They have after all agreed that the company must reinstate the road surface, when permission was given for the work to go ahead.