Senate Bill No. 279
(By Senators Ross, Love, Anderson, McCabe, Mitchell, Burnette
and Rowe)
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[Introduced January 22, 2002; referred to the Committee
on Transportation; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eight, article two-a,
chapter seventeen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
requiring the commissioner of the division of highways to
provide unisex bathrooms at each rest area on interstate
highways in West Virginia.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eight, article two-a, chapter seventeen of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. WEST VIRGINIA COMMISSIONER OF HIGHWAYS.
§17-2A-8. Powers, duties and responsibilities of commissioner.
In addition to all other duties, powers and responsibilities given and assigned to the commissioner in this chapter, the
commissioner may:
(1) Exercise general supervision over the state road program
and the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of
state roads and highways;
(2) Determine the various methods of road construction best
adapted to the various sections and areas of the state and
establish standards for the construction and maintenance of
roads and highways therein;
(3) Conduct investigations and experiments, hold hearings
and public meetings and attend and participate in meetings and
conferences within and without the state for purposes of
acquiring information, making findings and determining courses
of action and procedure relative to advancement and improvement
of the state road and highway system;
(4) Enter private lands to make inspections and surveys for
road and highway purposes;
(5) Acquire, in name of the department, by lease, grant,
right of eminent domain or other lawful means, all lands and
interests and rights in lands necessary and required for roads,
rights-of-way, cuts, fills, drains, storage for equipment and
materials and road construction and maintenance in general;
(6) Procure photostatic copies of any or all public records on file at the state capitol of Virginia which may be deemed
considered necessary or proper in ascertaining the location and
legal status of public road rights-of-way located or established
in what is now the state of West Virginia, which photostatic
copies, when certified by the commissioner, may be admitted in
evidence, in lieu of the original, in any of the courts of this
state;
(7) Plan for and hold annually a school of good roads, of
not less than three or more than six days' duration, for
instruction of his or her employees, which school shall be is
held in conjunction with West Virginia University and may be
held at the university or at any other suitable place in the
state;
(8) Negotiate and enter in reciprocal contracts and
agreements with proper authorities of other states and of the
United States relating to and regulating the use of roads and
highways with reference to weights and types of vehicles,
registration of vehicles and licensing of operators, military
and emergency movements of personnel and supplies and all other
matters of interstate or national interest;
(9) Classify and reclassify, locate and relocate,
expressway, trunkline, feeder and state local service roads, and
designate by number the routes within the state road system;
(10) Create, extend or establish, upon petition of any
interested party or parties or on the commissioner's own
initiative, any new road or highway as may be found necessary
and proper;
(11) Exercise jurisdiction, control, supervision and
authority over local roads, outside the state road system, to
the extent determined by him or her to be expedient and
practicable;
(12) Discontinue, vacate and close any road or highway, or
any part thereof, the continuance and maintenance of which are
found unnecessary and improper, upon petition and hearing or
upon investigation initiated by the commissioner;
(13) Close any state road while under construction or repair
and provide a temporary road during the time of such the
construction or repair;
(14) Adjust damages occasioned by construction,
reconstruction or repair of any state road or the establishment
of any temporary road;
(15) Establish and maintain a uniform system of road signs
and markers;
(16) Fix standard widths for road rights-of-way, bridges and
approaches thereto and fix and determine grades and elevations
therefor;
(17) Test and standardize materials used in road
construction and maintenance, either by governmental testing and
standardization activities or through contract by private
agencies;
(18) Allocate the cost of retaining walls and drainage
projects, for the protection of a state road or its right-of-
way, to the cost of construction, reconstruction, improvement or
maintenance;
(19) Acquire, establish, construct, maintain and operate,
in the name of the department, roadside recreational areas along
and adjacent to state roads and highways;
(20) Exercise general supervision over the construction and
maintenance of airports and landing fields under the
jurisdiction of the West Virginia state aeronautics commission,
of which the commissioner is a member, and make a study and
general plan of a statewide system of airports and landing
fields;
(21) Provide traffic engineering services to municipalities
of the state upon request of the governing body of any such
municipality and upon such terms as may be agreeably arranged;
(22) Institute complaints before the public service
commission or any other appropriate governmental agency relating
to freight rates, car service and movement of road materials and equipment;
(23) Invoke any appropriate legal or equitable remedies to
enforce his or her orders, to compel compliance with
requirements of law and to protect and preserve the state road
and highway system or any part thereof;
(24) Make and promulgate rules and regulations for the
government and conduct of personnel, for the orderly and
efficient administration and supervision of the state road
program and for the effective and expeditious performance and
discharge of the duties and responsibilities placed upon him or
her by law;
(25) Delegate powers and duties to his or her appointees and
employees who shall act by and under his or her direction and be
responsible to him or her for their acts;
(26) Designate and define such any construction and
maintenance districts within the state road system as may be
found expedient and practicable;
(27) Contract for the construction, improvement and
maintenance of the roads;
(28) Have authority to comply with provisions of present and
future federal aid statutes and regulations, including execution
of contracts or agreements with and cooperation in programs of
the United States government and any proper department, bureau or agency thereof relating to plans, surveys, construction,
reconstruction, improvement and maintenance of state roads and
highways;
(29) Prepare budget estimates and requests;
(30) Establish a system of accounting covering and including
all fiscal and financial matters of the department;
(31) Have authority to establish and advance a right-of-way
acquisition revolving fund, a materials revolving fund and an
equipment revolving fund;
(32) Enter into contracts and agreements with and cooperate
in programs of counties, municipalities and other governmental
agencies and subdivisions of the state relating to plans,
surveys, construction, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance
and supervision of highways, roads, streets and other travel
ways when and to the extent determined by the department to be
expedient and practical;
(33) Report, as provided by law, to the governor and the
Legislature;
(34) Purchase materials, supplies and equipment required for
the state road program and system;
(35) Dispose of all obsolete and unusable and surplus
supplies and materials, which cannot be used advantageously and
beneficially by the department in the state road program, by transfer thereof to other governmental agencies and institutions
by exchange, trade or sale thereof;
(36) Investigate road conditions, official conduct of
department personnel and fiscal and financial affairs of the
department and hold hearings and make findings thereon or on any
other matters within the jurisdiction of the department;
(37) Establish road policies and administrative practices;
(38) Fix and revise from time to time tolls for transit over
highway projects constructed by the division of highways after
the first day of May, one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine,
that have been authorized by the provisions of section five-b,
article seventeen-a of this chapter; and
(39) Take actions necessary to alleviate such any conditions
as the governor may declare to constitute an emergency, whether
or not the emergency condition affects areas normally under the
jurisdiction of the department of highways; and
(40) To provide unisex bathrooms at all rest areas along
interstate highways in this state.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
require the
commissioner of highways to provide unisex bathrooms at each
rest area on interstate highways in West Virginia.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.