Bill > A4435

Introduced Session

This bill provides for reforms to current law in an effort to reduce the costs of transportation projects in this State. The bill requires a reduction in the amount of Transportation Trust Fund Authority (authority) support for the salaries and overhead of the Department of Transportation (department) and the New Jersey Transit Corporation from an amount not to exceed $208,000,000 in fiscal year 2016 to an amount not to exceed 8.66 percent of the total funds appropriated from the revenues of other non-federal funds of the authority by fiscal year 2018 and for each fiscal year thereafter. The bill prohibits an appropriation from the authority's revenues or other funds to purchase or lease certain vehicles. The bill requires the Commissioner of Transportation (commissioner) to adopt rules, regulations, and specifications allowing that in any contract concerning the undertaking of a highway project, that: 1) the contract contain a provision providing for bonus compensation payment to the contractor, of an amount less than the amount of savings to the department if the contractor completes the project prior to the schedule provided for in the contract; and 2) the contract contain a provision allowing the department to require a contractor to use a limited number of designs and limited types of designs for a highway project and a limited number of materials and limited types of materials used for a highway project which have been pre-approved by the department. The bill provides that the commissioner, in entering into a cooperative agreement with any county enabling the provision of payments for the cost of labor and materials for road projects deemed necessary for the effectuation of State or federally-financed State transportation aid and related programs, is to negotiate a single cooperative agreement with a county to provide payments for the cost of labor and materials for road projects to that county and to every municipality within that county. The cooperative agreement is to be used as a template for any cooperative agreement the department has with a municipality within the county where the county is not a party to that cooperative agreement. This bill provides for the accommodation and relocation of public utility and cable television (CATV) company facilities during the course of an infrastructure project undertaken by the State or a county or municipality (contracting entity). The bill improves the process for public utility and CATV company facility accommodation and relocation and requires public utilities and CATV companies to bear the costs for that accommodation or relocation when a contracting entity is undertaking any infrastructure project. In doing so, the bill repeals current law that requires the department to bear those costs. This bill establishes a framework in which contracting entities, public utilities, and CATV companies have delineated rights and responsibilities during an infrastructure project. A contracting entity is required to: · Prepare a written draft infrastructure project work plan and construction schedule for any proposed infrastructure project within its jurisdiction, which is to include a description of the infrastructure project and certain other relevant information about the project. · Provide this notice to any public utility and CATV company which does business or is located within the contracting entity's jurisdiction of any impending infrastructure project within that jurisdiction during the initial planning and design phase of the project and no later than 120 calendar days prior to the solicitation of bids for that infrastructure project. · Schedule and hold a coordination meeting between the contracting entity and all authorized representatives from any public utility or CATV company provided notice of the infrastructure project to establish the coordination of the infrastructure project and any public utility or CATV company facility protection or relocation work that is required for purposes of the infrastructure project. · Prepare and distribute a written final infrastructure project work plan and construction schedule for an infrastructure project within its jurisdiction. · Determine if a public utility or CATV facility, in any manner, will delay or prevent the contracting entity from proceeding in the construction and completion of the infrastructure project, and notify the public utility or CATV company that it has a set amount of time to relocate, remove, shift, alter, or protect, as appropriate, their facility or facilities so as not to interfere in any way with the infrastructure project. · Determine if the existing public utility or CATV facilities are of a poor and deteriorated condition such that those facilities require replacement and require that the appropriate public utility or CATV company perform this work prior to the completion of the infrastructure project contract. A public utility or CATV company provided notice under the bill's provisions is required to do the following: · Undertake all necessary pre-engineering and field location testing, as required, to determine the precise location and extent of their facilities that exist within, and adjacent to, the project area. All costs associated with this pre-engineering are to be borne by the appropriate public utility or the CATV company. · Provide in writing, an accurate description, characteristic, and location of all of their facilities, and a written determination of every facility that will have an impact on the infrastructure project, including whether the characteristic or location of the facility will adversely impact the infrastructure project. · Determine whether it will perform all, or any, of the facility ancillary accommodation work in accordance with the final infrastructure project work plan and construction schedule. A public utility or CATV company will be liable to a contracting entity for any impact costs incurred by the contractor as a result of the failure of the public utility or CATV company to complete the ancillary accommodation work in accordance with the final infrastructure project work plan and construction schedule. · Reimburse a contracting entity for any impact costs associated with ancillary accommodation work when it is determined that, due to circumstances beyond the control of that public utility or CATV company, it cannot complete a portion, or all, of the ancillary accommodation work within, or adjacent to, the project area, and that the contracting entity will be required to perform a portion, or all, of the ancillary accommodation work. Further, the bill requires a county or municipality to notify all public utility and CATV companies of any planned improvement project on a public highway under its jurisdiction not later than 90 days before the improvement project is to start. A public utility and CATV company then has 14 days to notify the county or municipality of any utility work expected to be conducted in the project area for the next five years. The public utility and CATV company and the county or municipality will determine an adequate number of days during which the public utility and CATV company may conduct utility work in the improvement area before the county or municipality begins the project. A public utility and CATV company are prohibited from engaging in any activity that will result in any opening or alteration to the surface of a highway in the project area for five years beginning on the date an improvement project ends, provided that the required notice was provided to the utility company from the county or municipality. The prohibition does not apply in the case of emergency or to accommodate new construction. The bill requires that a business needing a permit to conduct work on a public highway is to receive priority status from the department and any other State agency or a local agency required to issue an approved permit related to that work.

AI Summary

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Amy Handlin (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee (on 01/10/2017)