Bill Text: NY S03882 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Creates a toll-free hotline and a website where motorists can report potholes.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2022-06-01 - referred to ways and means [S03882 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S03882-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          3882

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 1, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. KENNEDY, KAPLAN -- 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 36 to read as follows:
     3    36.  (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 his or her name, as well as an electronic mail address or  tele-
    15  phone  number  at  which the reporter can be contacted by the department
    16  with updates on the defect reported, though  anonymous  reporting  shall
    17  also be 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

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01672-02-1
        S. 3882                             2

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