Bill Text: NY S09497 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires the department of transportation to maintain a website or webpage where users may report defects on state highways and bridges.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-16 - REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION [S09497 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S09497-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9497

                    IN SENATE

                                      May 16, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sens. COONEY, HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation

        AN ACT to amend the transportation law, in  relation  to  requiring  the
          department  of  transportation  to maintain a website or webpage where
          users may report defects on state highways and bridges

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 14 of the transportation law is amended by adding a
     2  new subdivision 37 to read as follows:
     3    37.  (a)  The  department  shall maintain a toll-free twenty-four hour
     4  defect-reporting hotline and shall develop and make available a website,
     5  or develop and make available a page on its website:
     6    (i) providing an opportunity for website users to  report  defects  on
     7  state  highways  and  bridges,  as well as any other arteries within the
     8  department's jurisdiction; and
     9    (ii) providing  a  web  mapping  service  application  displaying  the
    10  locations  of the reported defects and any departmental actions respond-
    11  ing to and remedying the reported defects. Mapping service  applications
    12  shall include any additional information the department deems necessary.
    13    (b)  The  website shall (i) make provision for each defect reporter to
    14  provide their name, as well as an electronic mail address  or  telephone
    15  number  at  which  the  reporter can be contacted by the department with
    16  updates on the defect reported, though anonymous reporting shall also be
    17  permitted;
    18    (ii) track and preserve defects reported in list and map format; and
    19    (iii) provide an option for  reporting  of  region-  and  highway-wide
    20  defects as well as specific defects along more particularized locations,
    21  including, without limitation, mile markers.
    22    (c)  The listing and map shall be updated no less than once every five
    23  days to reflect any defects  reported  and  repairs  made.  Defects  and
    24  repairs  reported  shall  be  preserved  for  a minimum of three hundred
    25  sixty-five days from the time of reporting or repair.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05971-04-4
        S. 9497                             2

     1    (d) The department may collect and report such additional  information
     2  and  issues with respect to highway and bridge conditions and defects as
     3  it deems necessary.
     4    (e) The department shall also enable persons to report defects located
     5  on the state thruway system on this interactive website and application,
     6  and  is authorized and directed to coordinate with the thruway authority
     7  in creating or modifying the  interactive  website  and  application  to
     8  share, or enable the thruway authority to receive, reports of defects in
     9  locations  for  which  it  is responsible no more than twenty-four hours
    10  after the defect is  reported. The department is authorized  to  provide
    11  the  thruway  authority  with  joint  access to maintain and monitor the
    12  interactive website and application,  and may enter into a  cost-sharing
    13  arrangement with the authority.
    14    (f)  To  the  extent  practicable,  the  department  shall communicate
    15  defects reported to its interactive website and  application  on  county
    16  roads  and town highways to the local official responsible for such road
    17  or highway.  The commissioner shall discuss any difficulties encountered
    18  by such commissioner in implementing this  paragraph  during  the  joint
    19  legislative budget hearing convened pursuant to article VII of the state
    20  constitution and section thirty-one of the legislative law, beginning no
    21  later  than  the  hearing  to be scheduled in calendar year two thousand
    22  twenty-five.
    23    (g) Nothing in this authorization shall preclude the  department  from
    24  permitting  defects unrelated to the road and highway network from being
    25  reported to this website or application.
    26    (h) Identifying information for the defect reporter  shall  be  exempt
    27  from  the provisions of section eighty-seven of the public officers law,
    28  and shall not be shared by the department or thruway  authority  or  any
    29  entity  with  whom the department or authority contracts in implementing
    30  this legislation.
    31    § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
    32  it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition,  amend-
    33  ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
    34  tation  of  this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
    35  completed on or before such effective date.