Florida Senate - 2012                          SENATOR AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS/CS/CS/HB 599, 1st Eng.
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 161018                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
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                  Floor: WD            .                                
             03/09/2012 06:41 PM       .                                
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       Senator Evers moved the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Between lines 322 and 323
    4  insert:
    5         Section 3. Section 337.403, Florida Statutes, is amended to
    6  read:
    7         337.403 Interference caused by relocation of utility;
    8  expenses.—
    9         (1) If a Any utility that is heretofore or hereafter placed
   10  upon, under, over, or along any public road or publicly owned
   11  rail 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)-(g) (a)-(f).
   19  The work must be completed within such reasonable time as stated
   20  in the 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 a the new
   35  facility and any salvage value derived from an the old facility.
   36         (b) When a joint agreement between the department and the
   37  utility is executed for utility improvement, relocation, or
   38  removal work to be accomplished as part of a contract for
   39  construction of a transportation facility, the department may
   40  participate in those utility work improvement, relocation, or
   41  removal costs that exceed the department’s official estimate of
   42  the cost of the work by more than 10 percent. The amount of such
   43  participation shall be limited to the difference between the
   44  official estimate of all the work in the joint agreement plus 10
   45  percent and the amount awarded for this work in the construction
   46  contract for such work. The department may not participate in
   47  any utility work improvement, relocation, or removal costs that
   48  occur as a result of changes or additions during the course of
   49  the contract.
   50         (c) When an agreement between the department and utility is
   51  executed for utility improvement, relocation, or removal work to
   52  be accomplished in advance of a contract for construction of a
   53  transportation facility, the department may participate in the
   54  cost of clearing and grubbing necessary to perform such work.
   55         (d) If the utility facility being removed or relocated was
   56  initially installed to exclusively serve the authority or
   57  department, its tenants, or both, the authority department shall
   58  bear the costs of the removing or relocating that utility work
   59  facility. However, the authority department is not responsible
   60  for bearing the cost of utility work related to removing or
   61  relocating any subsequent additions to that facility for the
   62  purpose of serving others.
   63         (e) If, under an agreement between a utility and the
   64  authority entered into after July 1, 2009, the utility conveys,
   65  subordinates, or relinquishes a compensable property right to
   66  the authority for the purpose of accommodating the acquisition
   67  or use of the right-of-way by the authority, without the
   68  agreement expressly addressing future responsibility for the
   69  cost of necessary utility work removing or relocating the
   70  utility, the authority shall bear the cost of removal or
   71  relocation. This paragraph does not impair or restrict, and may
   72  not be used to interpret, the terms of any such agreement
   73  entered into before July 1, 2009.
   74         (f) If the utility is an electric facility being relocated
   75  underground in order to enhance vehicular, bicycle, and
   76  pedestrian safety and in which ownership of the electric
   77  facility to be placed underground has been transferred from a
   78  private to a public utility within the past 5 years, the
   79  department shall incur all costs of the necessary utility work
   80  relocation.
   81         (g) An authority may bear the costs of utility work
   82  required to eliminate an unreasonable interference when the
   83  utility is not able to establish that it has a compensable
   84  property right in the particular property where the utility is
   85  located if:
   86         1. The utility was physically located on the particular
   87  property before the authority acquired rights in the property;
   88         2. The utility demonstrates that it has a compensable
   89  property right in all adjacent properties along the alignment of
   90  the utility; and
   91         3. The information available to the authority does not
   92  establish the relative priorities of the authority’s and the
   93  utility’s interests in the particular property.
   94         (2) If such utility work removal or relocation is
   95  incidental to work to be done on such road or publicly owned
   96  rail corridor, the notice shall be given at the same time the
   97  contract for the work is advertised for bids, or no less than 30
   98  days before prior to the commencement of such work by the
   99  authority, whichever occurs later.
  100         (3) Whenever a notice from an order of the authority
  101  requires such utility work removal or change in the location of
  102  any utility from the right-of-way of a public road or publicly
  103  owned rail corridor, and the owner thereof fails to perform the
  104  work remove or change the same at his or her own expense to
  105  conform to the order within the time stated in the notice or
  106  such other time as agreed to by the authority and the utility
  107  owner, the authority shall proceed to cause the utility work to
  108  be performed to be removed. The expense thereby incurred shall
  109  be paid out of any money available therefor, and such expense
  110  shall, except as provided in subsection (1), be charged against
  111  the owner and levied and collected and paid into the fund from
  112  which the expense of such relocation was paid.
  113         Section 4. Subsection (1) of section 337.404, Florida
  114  Statutes, is amended to read:
  115         337.404 Removal or relocation of utility facilities; notice
  116  and order; court review.—
  117         (1) Whenever it becomes shall become necessary for the
  118  authority to perform utility work remove or relocate any utility
  119  as provided in s. 337.403 the preceding section, the owner of
  120  the utility, or the owner’s chief agent, shall be given notice
  121  that the authority will perform of such work removal or
  122  relocation and, after the work is completed, shall be given an
  123  order requiring the payment of the cost thereof, and a shall be
  124  given reasonable time, which may shall not be less than 20 or
  125  nor more than 30 days, in which to appear before the authority
  126  to contest the reasonableness of the order. Should the owner or
  127  the owner’s representative not appear, the determination of the
  128  cost to the owner shall be final. Authorities considered
  129  agencies for the purposes of chapter 120 shall adjudicate
  130  removal or relocation of utilities pursuant to chapter 120.
  131  
  132  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  133         And the title is amended as follows:
  134         Delete lines 2 - 9
  135  and insert:
  136         An act relating to mitigation; amending s. 341.301,
  137         F.S.; revising the definition of the term “limited
  138         covered accident”; amending s. 341.302, F.S.;
  139         authorizing the Department of Transportation to
  140         contract to indemnify against loss and purchase
  141         liability insurance coverage for National Railroad
  142         Passenger Corporation subject to specified terms and
  143         conditions; amending ss. 337.403 and 337.404, F.S.;
  144         clarifying provisions relating to responsibility for
  145         the work and costs for alleviating interference on a
  146         public road or publicly owned rail corridor caused by
  147         a utility facility; requiring the utility owner to
  148         initiate and complete the work necessary within a
  149         certain time period; requiring the local governmental
  150         authority to bear the costs of work on a utility
  151         facility that was initially installed to serve the
  152         governmental entity or its tenants; providing that the
  153         governmental entity is not responsible for the costs
  154         of utility work related to subsequent additions to the
  155         facility; requiring that the local governmental
  156         authority bear the costs of removing or relocating a
  157         utility facility under certain circumstances;
  158         providing for notice to the utility; revising
  159         provisions for payment of costs; revising provisions
  160         for completion of work when the utility owner does not
  161         perform the work; amending s. 373.4137,