Florida Senate - 2025                              CS for SB 818
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Transportation; and Senator McClain
       
       
       
       
       
       596-03161-25                                           2025818c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to utility relocation; amending s.
    3         337.403, F.S.; requiring utility owners to provide a
    4         certain authority with utility relocation schedules
    5         within a certain timeframe to expedite work; revising
    6         the timeframe within which a utility owner must
    7         initiate work; requiring a service provider to perform
    8         work under specific circumstances; requiring the
    9         authority to pay relocation expenses in certain
   10         instances; amending s. 125.42, F.S.; conforming a
   11         cross-reference; providing a finding and declaration
   12         of important state interest; providing an effective
   13         date.
   14          
   15  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   16  
   17         Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 337.403, Florida
   18  Statutes, is amended to read:
   19         337.403 Interference caused by utility; expenses.—
   20         (1) If a utility that is placed upon, under, over, or
   21  within the right-of-way limits of any public road or publicly
   22  owned rail corridor is found by the authority to be unreasonably
   23  interfering in any way with the convenient, safe, or continuous
   24  use, or the maintenance, improvement, extension, or expansion,
   25  of such public road or publicly owned rail corridor, the utility
   26  owner must shall, within 30 days after upon 30 days’ written
   27  notice to the utility or its agent by the authority, provide the
   28  authority a reasonable utility relocation schedule to expedite
   29  the completion of the authority’s construction or maintenance
   30  project identified in the notice, and, within 60 days after the
   31  written notice from the authority, initiate the work necessary
   32  to alleviate the interference at its own expense except as
   33  provided in paragraphs (a)-(k) (a)-(j). The work must be
   34  completed within such reasonable time as stated in the notice or
   35  such time as agreed to by the authority and the utility owner.
   36         (a) If the relocation of utility facilities, as referred to
   37  in s. 111 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, Pub. L. No.
   38  84-627, is necessitated by the construction of a project on the
   39  federal-aid interstate system, including extensions thereof
   40  within urban areas, and the cost of the project is eligible and
   41  approved for reimbursement by the Federal Government to the
   42  extent of 90 percent or more under the Federal-Aid Highway Act,
   43  or any amendment thereof, then in that event the utility owning
   44  or operating such facilities must shall perform any necessary
   45  work upon notice from the department, and the state must shall
   46  pay the entire expense properly attributable to such work after
   47  deducting therefrom any increase in the value of a new facility
   48  and any salvage value derived from an old facility.
   49         (b) When a joint agreement between the department and the
   50  utility is executed for utility work to be accomplished as part
   51  of a contract for construction of a transportation facility, the
   52  department may participate in those utility work costs that
   53  exceed the department’s official estimate of the cost of the
   54  work by more than 10 percent. The amount of such participation
   55  is limited to the difference between the official estimate of
   56  all the work in the joint agreement plus 10 percent and the
   57  amount awarded for this work in the construction contract for
   58  such work. The department may not participate in any utility
   59  work costs that occur as a result of changes or additions during
   60  the course of the contract.
   61         (c) When an agreement between the department and utility is
   62  executed for utility work to be accomplished in advance of a
   63  contract for construction of a transportation facility, the
   64  department may participate in the cost of clearing and grubbing
   65  necessary to perform such work.
   66         (d) If the utility facility was initially installed to
   67  exclusively serve the authority or its tenants, or both, the
   68  authority must shall bear the costs of the utility work.
   69  However, the authority is not responsible for the cost of
   70  utility work related to any subsequent additions to that
   71  facility for the purpose of serving others. For a county or
   72  municipality, if such utility facility was installed in the
   73  right-of-way as a means to serve a county or municipal facility
   74  on a parcel of property adjacent to the right-of-way and if the
   75  intended use of the county or municipal facility is for a use
   76  other than transportation purposes, the obligation of the county
   77  or municipality to bear the costs of the utility work shall
   78  extend only to utility work on the parcel of property on which
   79  the facility of the county or municipality originally served by
   80  the utility facility is located.
   81         (e) If, under an agreement between a utility and the
   82  authority entered into after July 1, 2009, the utility conveys,
   83  subordinates, or relinquishes a compensable property right to
   84  the authority for the purpose of accommodating the acquisition
   85  or use of the right-of-way by the authority, without the
   86  agreement expressly addressing future responsibility for the
   87  cost of necessary utility work, the authority must shall bear
   88  the cost of removal or relocation. This paragraph does not
   89  impair or restrict, and may not be used to interpret, the terms
   90  of any such agreement entered into before July 1, 2009.
   91         (f) If the utility is an electric facility being relocated
   92  underground in order to enhance vehicular, bicycle, and
   93  pedestrian safety and in which ownership of the electric
   94  facility to be placed underground has been transferred from a
   95  private to a public utility within the past 5 years, the
   96  department must shall incur all costs of the necessary utility
   97  work.
   98         (g) An authority may bear the costs of utility work
   99  required to eliminate an unreasonable interference when the
  100  utility is not able to establish that it has a compensable
  101  property right in the particular property where the utility is
  102  located if:
  103         1. The utility was physically located on the particular
  104  property before the authority acquired rights in the property;
  105         2. The utility demonstrates that it has a compensable
  106  property right in adjacent properties along the alignment of the
  107  utility or, after due diligence, certifies that the utility does
  108  not have evidence to prove or disprove that it has a compensable
  109  property right in the particular property where the utility is
  110  located; and
  111         3. The information available to the authority does not
  112  establish the relative priorities of the authority’s and the
  113  utility’s interests in the particular property.
  114         (h) If a municipally owned utility or county-owned utility
  115  is located in a rural area of opportunity, as defined in s.
  116  288.0656(2), and the department determines that the utility is
  117  unable, and will not be able within the next 10 years, to pay
  118  for the cost of utility work necessitated by a department
  119  project on the State Highway System, the department may pay, in
  120  whole or in part, the cost of such utility work performed by the
  121  department or its contractor.
  122         (i) If the relocation of utility facilities is necessitated
  123  by the construction of a commuter rail service project or an
  124  intercity passenger rail service project and the cost of the
  125  project is eligible and approved for reimbursement by the
  126  Federal Government, then in that event the utility owning or
  127  operating such facilities located by permit on a department
  128  owned rail corridor must shall perform any necessary utility
  129  relocation work upon notice from the department, and the
  130  department must shall pay the expense properly attributable to
  131  such utility relocation work in the same proportion as federal
  132  funds are expended on the commuter rail service project or an
  133  intercity passenger rail service project after deducting
  134  therefrom any increase in the value of a new facility and any
  135  salvage value derived from an old facility. In no event is shall
  136  the state be required to use state dollars for such utility
  137  relocation work. This paragraph does not apply to any phase of
  138  the Central Florida Commuter Rail project, known as SunRail.
  139         (j) If a utility is lawfully located within an existing and
  140  valid utility easement granted by recorded plat, regardless of
  141  whether such land was subsequently acquired by the authority by
  142  dedication, transfer of fee, or otherwise, the authority must
  143  bear the cost of the utility work required to eliminate an
  144  unreasonable interference. The authority shall pay the entire
  145  expense properly attributable to such work after deducting any
  146  increase in the value of a new facility and any salvage value
  147  derived from an old facility.
  148         (k) If the authority requires a provider of broadband
  149  Internet service as defined in s. 288.9961(2), or a cable
  150  service provider or video service provider as defined in s.
  151  610.103, to relocate a facility used to provide such service,
  152  the service provider owning or operating such facility must
  153  perform any necessary work upon notice from the authority, and
  154  the authority requiring such relocation must pay the entire
  155  expense properly attributable to such work.
  156         Section 2. Subsection (5) of section 125.42, Florida
  157  Statutes, is amended to read:
  158         125.42 Water, sewage, gas, power, telephone, other utility,
  159  and television lines within the right-of-way limits of county
  160  roads and highways.—
  161         (5) In the event of widening, repair, or reconstruction of
  162  any such road, the licensee shall move or remove such water,
  163  sewage, gas, power, telephone, and other utility lines and
  164  television lines at no cost to the county should they be found
  165  by the county to be unreasonably interfering, except as provided
  166  in s. 337.403(1)(d)-(k) s. 337.403(1)(d)-(j).
  167         Section 3. The Legislature finds and declares that this act
  168  fulfills an important state interest.
  169         Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.