Bill Text: NY S06304 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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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) 2024-05-06 - RECOMMIT, ENACTING CLAUSE STRICKEN [S06304 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S06304-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         6304--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                     April 12, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced by Sens. KENNEDY, HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation --
          recommitted  to  the  Committee  on  Transportation in accordance with
          Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill  amended,  ordered
          reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee

        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.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05971-02-4
        S. 6304--A                          2

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