Florida Senate - 2012                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1866
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 254496                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                   Comm: RS            .                                
                  02/03/2012           .                                
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       The Committee on Transportation (Evers) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Substitute for Amendment (759918) (with title
    2  amendment)
    3  
    4         Delete lines 1726 - 1837
    5  and insert:
    6         Section 35. Section 337.403, Florida Statutes, is amended
    7  to read:
    8         337.403 Interference caused by relocation of utility;
    9  expenses.—
   10         (1) When a Any utility heretofore or hereafter placed upon,
   11  under, over, or along any public road or publicly owned rail
   12  corridor that is found by the authority to be unreasonably
   13  interfering in any way with the convenient, safe, or continuous
   14  use, or the maintenance, improvement, extension, or expansion,
   15  of such public road or publicly owned rail corridor, the utility
   16  owner shall, upon 30 days’ written notice to the utility or its
   17  agent by the authority, initiate the work necessary to alleviate
   18  the interference be removed or relocated by such utility at its
   19  own expense except as provided in paragraphs (a)-(f). The work
   20  must be completed within such reasonable time as stated in the
   21  notice or such time as agreed to by the authority and the
   22  utility owner.
   23         (a) If the relocation of utility facilities, as referred to
   24  in s. 111 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, Pub. L. No.
   25  627 of the 84th Congress, is necessitated by the construction of
   26  a project on the federal-aid interstate system, including
   27  extensions thereof within urban areas, and the cost of the
   28  project is eligible and approved for reimbursement by the
   29  Federal Government to the extent of 90 percent or more under the
   30  Federal Aid Highway Act, or any amendment thereof, then in that
   31  event the utility owning or operating such facilities shall
   32  perform any necessary work relocate the facilities upon notice
   33  from order of the department, and the state shall pay the entire
   34  expense properly attributable to such work relocation after
   35  deducting therefrom any increase in the value of any the new
   36  facility and any salvage value derived from any the old
   37  facility.
   38         (b) When a joint agreement between the department and the
   39  utility is executed for utility improvement, relocation, or
   40  removal work to be accomplished as part of a contract for
   41  construction of a transportation facility, the department may
   42  participate in those utility work improvement, relocation, or
   43  removal costs that exceed the department’s official estimate of
   44  the cost of the work by more than 10 percent. The amount of such
   45  participation shall be limited to the difference between the
   46  official estimate of all the work in the joint agreement plus 10
   47  percent and the amount awarded for this work in the construction
   48  contract for such work. The department may not participate in
   49  any utility work improvement, relocation, or removal costs that
   50  occur as a result of changes or additions during the course of
   51  the contract.
   52         (c) When an agreement between the department and utility is
   53  executed for utility improvement, relocation, or removal work to
   54  be accomplished in advance of a contract for construction of a
   55  transportation facility, the department may participate in the
   56  cost of clearing and grubbing necessary to perform such work.
   57         (d) If the utility facility being removed or relocated was
   58  initially installed to exclusively serve the authority or
   59  department, its tenants, or both, the authority department shall
   60  bear the costs of the removing or relocating that utility work
   61  facility. However, the authority department is not responsible
   62  for bearing the cost of utility work related to removing or
   63  relocating any subsequent additions to that facility for the
   64  purpose of serving others.
   65         (e) If, under an agreement between a utility and the
   66  authority entered into after July 1, 2009, the utility conveys,
   67  subordinates, or relinquishes a compensable property right to
   68  the authority for the purpose of accommodating the acquisition
   69  or use of the right-of-way by the authority, without the
   70  agreement expressly addressing future responsibility for the
   71  cost of necessary utility work removing or relocating the
   72  utility, the authority shall bear the cost of removal or
   73  relocation. This paragraph does not impair or restrict, and may
   74  not be used to interpret, the terms of any such agreement
   75  entered into before July 1, 2009.
   76         (f) If the utility is an electric facility being relocated
   77  underground in order to enhance vehicular, bicycle, and
   78  pedestrian safety and in which ownership of the electric
   79  facility to be placed underground has been transferred from a
   80  private to a public utility within the past 5 years, the
   81  department shall incur all costs of the necessary utility work
   82  relocation.
   83         (g) If the authority acquires the property on which a
   84  utility was located before the removal or relocation of the
   85  utility facility, and such utility is not found to be located
   86  illegally, the authority shall bear the costs of removing or
   87  relocating that utility facility.
   88         (2) If such utility work removal or relocation is
   89  incidental to work to be done on such road or publicly owned
   90  rail corridor, the notice shall be given at the same time the
   91  contract for the work is advertised for bids, or no less than 30
   92  days prior to the commencement of such work by the authority,
   93  whichever is greater.
   94         (3) Whenever the notice from an order of the authority
   95  requires such utility work removal or change in the location of
   96  any utility from the right-of-way of a public road or publicly
   97  owned rail corridor, and the owner thereof fails to perform the
   98  work remove or change the same at his or her own expense to
   99  conform to the order within the time stated in the notice or
  100  such other time as agreed to by the authority and the utility
  101  owner, the authority shall proceed to cause the utility work to
  102  be performed to be removed. The expense thereby incurred shall
  103  be paid out of any money available therefor, and such expense
  104  shall, except as provided in subsection (1), be charged against
  105  the owner and levied and collected and paid into the fund from
  106  which the expense of such relocation was paid.
  107         Section 36. Subsection (1) of section 337.404, Florida
  108  Statutes, is amended to read:
  109         337.404 Removal or relocation of utility facilities; notice
  110  and order; court review.—
  111  (1) Whenever it becomes shall become necessary for the authority
  112  to perform utility work remove or relocate any utility as
  113  provided in s. 337.403 the preceding section, the owner of the
  114  utility, or the owner’s chief agent, shall be given notice that
  115  the authority will perform of such work removal or relocation
  116  and, after the work is complete, given an order requiring the
  117  payment of the cost thereof, and a shall be given reasonable
  118  time, which may shall not be less than 20 or nor more than 30
  119  days, in which to appear before the authority to contest the
  120  reasonableness of the order. Should the owner or the owner’s
  121  representative not appear, the determination of the cost to the
  122  owner shall be final. Authorities considered agencies for the
  123  purposes of chapter 120 shall adjudicate removal or relocation
  124  of utilities pursuant to chapter 120.
  125  
  126  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  127         And the title is amended as follows:
  128         Delete line 140
  129  and insert:
  130         certain time period; requiring the local governmental
  131         authority to bear the costs of work on a utility
  132         facility that was initially installed to serve the
  133         governmental entity or its tenants; providing that the
  134         governmental entity is not responsible for the costs
  135         of utility work related to subsequent additions to the
  136         facility; requiring that the local governmental
  137         authority bear the costs of removing or relocating a
  138         utility facility under certain circumstances;
  139         providing for notice to the