AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the authority of the commissioners courts of certain

 1-2     counties to alter speed limits on certain highways.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 545.355, Transportation Code, is amended

 1-5     by adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:

 1-6           (c)  The commissioners court of a county with a population of

 1-7     more than 2.8 million may establish from the results of an

 1-8     engineering and traffic investigation a speed limit of not more

 1-9     than 70 miles per hour on any part of a highway of that county that

1-10     is a limited-access or controlled-access highway, regardless of the

1-11     location of the part of the highway.

1-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-18     passage, and it is so enacted.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 161 passed the Senate on

         February 26, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays 0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 161 passed the House on

         April 25, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 145, Nays 0, three

         present not voting.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

         Approved:

         _______________________________

                     Date

         _______________________________

                   Governor