54-3-102 - Legislative intent Conformance with statewide transportation plan Development of alternatives Environmental evaluation Hearings.
54-3-102. Legislative intent Conformance with statewide transportation plan Development of alternatives Environmental evaluation Hearings.
(a) It is the intent of the general assembly to supplement this title by authorizing tolling as an additional and alternative method for funding or financing the development and operation of highways and appurtenant facilities or other transportation-related facilities.
(b) The development of any tollway or toll facility project by or under the authority of the department shall be in accordance with the department's long-range statewide transportation plan. The department shall specifically identify any proposed tollway or toll facility project in the transportation improvement program furnished to the general assembly in support of the commissioner's annual funding recommendations. For each tollway or toll facility project included in a transportation improvement program, there shall be submitted to the general assembly, either with the transportation improvement program upon its submission to the general assembly or prior to the submission to the general assembly, any plans, feasibility analysis and other such information as may be available that describes the proposed project, the need for the project and any other information upon which the decision of the commissioner to recommend the project was based. No further development of any such tollway or toll facility project shall occur until the commissioner's annual funding recommendations, including the proposed tollway or toll facility project, have been approved by the general assembly pursuant to the express provisions of the general appropriations act or as otherwise provided by law.
(c) The development of any tollway or toll facility project by or under the authority of the department shall consider alternatives to the project, shall consider the economic, social and environmental effects of the tollway project, and shall consider the findings of the environmental evaluation process and public comments, including comments from any metropolitan planning organization or rural planning organization, or both, in which the project is located, before developing any final construction plans for the tollway or toll facility. If the proposed project involves federal aid funding or constitutes a major federal action, the department's environmental evaluation process shall be subject, as applicable, to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq. If the proposed project does not involve federal aid funding and does not otherwise constitute a major federal action, it shall be subject to environmental evaluation and documentation in accordance with such policies and procedures as the department may establish.
(d) The development of any tollway or toll facility project by or under the authority of the department shall be subject to public hearings conducted in accordance with such procedures as the department may establish. The department shall hold the public hearings at convenient locations during the environmental evaluation of the project and prior to plans for the tollway project being finally adopted.
(e) The environmental evaluation and public hearing provisions of subsections (c) and (d) shall not apply to the authorization, sale or issuance of bonds under this chapter.
[Acts 2007, ch. 597, § 3.]