Senate Bill No. 56
(By Senator Bailey)
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[Introduced January 9, 2002; referred to the Committee on
Transportation.]
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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 legislative approval before a road, highway or
bridge may receive a scenic or memorial designation.
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 in the state;
(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 division, 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
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 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,
except that no road, highway or bridge may receive a scenic or
memorial designation without prior legislative approval by
passage of a concurrent resolution so designating that road, highway or bridge;
(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 of any road or highway, 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 their approaches thereto and fix and determine their 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 division, 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 of the system;
(24) Make and promulgate Adopt procedural and interpretive
rules or propose legislative rules and regulations for
legislative approval, as appropriate, under the provisions of
article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, 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 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 executing contracts or agreements with and cooperation
cooperating in programs of the United States government and any
proper department, bureau or agency thereof of the government
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 division;
(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
division 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 division 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 division personnel and fiscal and financial affairs
of the department division and hold hearings and make findings
thereon or on any other matters within the jurisdiction of the
department division;
(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 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 division of highways.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require legislative
approval by passage of a concurrent resolution before a road,
highway or bridge may receive a scenic or memorial designation.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.