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