By Hochberg                                           H.B. No. 2786
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the designation by the Texas Transportation Commission
    1-3  and the Texas Department of Transportation of flood evacuation
    1-4  routes.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Article 6673l, Revised Statutes, is amended to
    1-7  read as follows:
    1-8        Article 6673l.  Flood Evacuation Routes.  (a)  The Commission
    1-9  shall adopt rules providing for the designation of flood evacuation
   1-10  routes in counties covered under Sec. 240.901, Local Government
   1-11  Code and any other counties the Commission may deem appropriate.
   1-12  To qualify as a flood evacuation route, the roadway along the
   1-13  length of the route must be above the elevation of the 100-year
   1-14  flood event as determined at the time of the designation of the
   1-15  route.
   1-16        (b)  The Department shall adopt a memorandum of understanding
   1-17  with each affected county designating the appropriate flood
   1-18  evacuation route or routes for that county.  In the event that no
   1-19  existing roadways meet the criteria established pursuant to
   1-20  Commission rules or the Department determines that there are
   1-21  insufficient qualifying roadways to serve the safety needs of the
   1-22  county's residents, the memorandum shall also include a plan for
   1-23  the upgrading of existing roadways or construction of new routes
    2-1  sufficient to meet those needs and be in compliance with the rules
    2-2  of the Commission.  If the designation of the 100-year flood event
    2-3  is subsequently altered in a manner that a portion of a designated
    2-4  flood evacuation route is no longer in compliance with the
    2-5  Commission rules, the Department and the county shall adopt a plan
    2-6  designed to restore compliance to the route.
    2-7        (c)  The Commission may adopt rules providing for financial
    2-8  assistance to counties from the State Highway Fund for the
    2-9  upgrading or construction of roadways designated as flood
   2-10  evacuation routes under memoranda of agreement adopted pursuant to
   2-11  this article, regardless of whether the roadway is otherwise
   2-12  designated as eligible for state financial assistance.  The
   2-13  Department may enter into a contract with a county covered under
   2-14  this article providing for either entity to oversee or conduct the
   2-15  construction or upgrading of a roadway pursuant to this article.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.