LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
FISCAL NOTE, 78TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
May 12, 2003

TO:
Honorable Steve Ogden, Chair, Senate Committee on Infrastructure Development and Security
 
FROM:
John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
SB1763 by Ogden (Relating to vehicle weights.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted



Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB1763, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2005.

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.



Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2004 $0
2005 $0
2006 $0
2007 $0
2008 $0




Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from
STATE HIGHWAY FUND
6
2004 ($3,087,465)
2005 ($3,087,465)
2006 $0
2007 $0
2008 $0

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would amend the Transportation Code to clarify that route restrictions currently in place for bridges with posted maximum weight limits also apply to county roads where maximum weight limits are posted by a county commissioners court. The bill includes a stipulation that the holder of a permit issued under Section 623.011 must provide to the office of the county sheriff a minimum 2-hour notice of a needed access prior to crossing a load zoned bridge that provides the only vehicular access to or from the permit holder's origin or destination when the weight of the vehicle and load is greater than the posted limits. The bill would both include and exempt county roads from the restrictions for reasons and conditions specified in the bill, and would require the restrictions for a county road established prior to September 1, 2001, to be subject to the load limits established by the commissioners court of a county with the concurrence of the Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

The bill would take effect immediately if it receives a two-thirds vote in each house; otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2003.


Methodology

TxDOT estimates costs of approximately $3.0 million during the first two years for field crews to inventory all load restricted county roads out of approximately 142,525 county road miles for the purposes of establishing a database. TxDOT estimates six crews would be needed for 24 months to complete the project. This analysis assumes that costs of $240,000 estimated by TxDOT to be realized during fiscal year 2006 to develop software to incorporate the load zoned county road database into the Load Restricted Internet Mapping application, could be absorbed within the agency’s operating costs.

Local Government Impact

TxDOT estimates that during the period while the agency is developing a county road load zoned database, significant damage could occur to existing county roads because all load limits would, in effect, be removed by the provisions of the bill. TxDOT estimates the cost to repair the damage would be $2,000 per lane mile for 2,930 miles of failed county roads over a 5-year period, for a total cost of $1,172,000. Further, TxDOT estimates that the cost to the counties for the engineering analysis of load zoned county roads required by the bill would be $1,600 per analysis and anticipates 11,720 analyses, for a total of $18,752,200. Cumulative statewide damage repair and load zoned analysis would have a combined total of $19,924,200. Because road repair projects vary in length of time for completion, it is assumed this amount would be spread out over several years.

The total fiscal impact to each county would vary depending on the number of county roads and bridges that would be affected per county, the extent of needed repairs, and the number of engineer analyses required.



Source Agencies:
601 Department of Transportation
LBB Staff:
JK, JO, RR, RT, DLBa, MW