BILL REQ. #:  H-4561.1 

Read first time 01/18/08.   Referred to Committee on Transportation.

     AN ACT Relating to bridge safety; amending RCW 47.36.050; adding a new section to chapter 47.06 RCW; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 47.06 RCW to read as follows:
     (1)(a) The department shall create a bridge safety rating system. At a minimum, the rating system must clearly differentiate between bridges that are in need of replacement, bridges in need of major repair, bridges in need of minor repair, and bridges that are not in need of repair. The department shall provide a report describing the rating system to the legislature before December 31, 2008.
     (b) For the purposes of this section, "bridge" means a structure: Located on a public road, including supports erected over a depression or an obstruction, such as water, a highway, or a railway; having a track or passageway for carrying traffic or other moving loads; and having an opening measured along the center of the roadway of more than twenty feet between undercopings of abutments or spring lines of arches, or extreme ends of openings for multiple boxes, and may also include multiple pipes, where the clear distance between openings is less than half of the smaller contiguous opening. "Bridge" includes any bridge that is subject to the national bridge inspection standards.
     (2) On July 1, 2009, and every two years thereafter, the department shall issue a bridge safety report to the legislature. The report must also be posted on the department's public web site. The report must indicate the safety rating of every state-owned bridge.
     (3) Bridges that are in need of major repair or replacement must be equipped with a sign as described in RCW 47.36.050.

Sec. 2   RCW 47.36.050 and 1984 c 7 s 190 are each amended to read as follows:
     The department shall erect and maintain upon every state highway in the state of Washington suitable and proper signs, signals, signboards, guideposts, and other traffic devices according to the adopted and designated state standard of design, erection, and location, and in the manner required by law. The department shall erect and maintain upon all state highways appropriate stop signs, warning signs, ((and)) school signs, and bridge safety signs at each approach of every bridge that is designated as in need of major repair or replacement as provided in section 1 of this act. Any person, firm, corporation, or municipal corporation, building, owning, controlling, or operating a railroad that crosses any state highway at grade shall construct, erect, and maintain at or near each point of crossing, or at such point or points as will meet the approval of the department, a sign of the type known as the saw buck crossing sign with the lettering "railroad crossing" inscribed thereon and also a suitable inscription indicating the number of tracks. The sign must be of standard design that will comply with the plans and specifications furnished by the department. Additional safety devices and signs may be installed at any time when required by the utilities and transportation commission as provided by laws regulating railroad-highway grade crossings.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   Section 2 of this act takes effect July 1, 2009.