Designates particular town roads as low-volume roads and sets new special standards for maintenance of such roads

3 Co-sponsors

• William J. Larkin Jr.
• James L. Seward
• Dale M. Volker

Title of bill

An act to amend the highway law and the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to the maintenance, improvement and repair of particular town roads

Purpose

This bill authorizes towns to designate particular town roads as low-volume roads and sets new special standards for maintenance of such roads.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 and 2 amends the highway law by adding a new article 8-B to be known as the Town Low-Volume Roads and provides legislative findings and definitions for this new section. Section 3 and 4 amends the vehicle and traffic law by designating a low-volume road as a minimum maintenance road.

Justification

Low-volume road designations has been encouraged but not authorized through statute. In 1990, as a result of the efforts of the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources working in conjunction with the Legislature, the State Department of Transportation and the Governor's Office, the NYS Local Roads Research and Coordination Council was established. The Council's mission was to promote increased state attention to, and support of local roads management efforts. Subsequently, the Council defined and promulgated standards for low-volume roads. A town may officially designate a road as a low-volume road, upon public hearing, and upon the adoption of a local law by the town board, and classify it according to the Council's road classification. A road may be designated as a low-volume road where there is less than 400 vehicles per day. The purpose in designating low-volume roads is to reduce costs associated 'with bringing such roads to state or national standards. Current maintenance standards are either extremely costly to implement, or lack the specific guidance a local highway department with no professional engineering personnel can manage. In many rural towns throughout New York, the highway budget already meets or exceeds 75% of total town expenditures. It is impractical for rural towns to afford this level of design, construction and maintenance. Low-volume road designation provides a more realistic standard. In addition to the fiscal protection that this bill affords, low volume and particularly minimum maintenance roads are a management tool that helps to conserve working landscapes (forest and agriculture). Low volume roads provide access that is not only necessary to such working landscapes but also serves as a deterrent to residential development that could result in land fragmentation and competition to working landscapes. Finally, by providing towns a fiscally responsible management option through low volume road designations, many towns have and will continue to support the infrastructure necessary to access these working landscapes.

Legislative history

S.7167 - Passed Senate.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law.