BILL REQ. #: H-3943.1
State of Washington | 63rd Legislature | 2014 Regular Session |
Read first time 02/05/14. Referred to Committee on Transportation.
AN ACT Relating to the removal of snow from streets that are part of state highways; and amending RCW 47.24.020.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 47.24.020 and 2007 c 84 s 1 are each amended to read
as follows:
The jurisdiction, control, and duty of the state and city or town
with respect to such streets is as follows:
(1) The department has no authority to change or establish any
grade of any such street without approval of the governing body of such
city or town, except with respect to limited access facilities
established by the commission;
(2) The city or town shall exercise full responsibility for and
control over any such street beyond the curbs and if no curb is
installed, beyond that portion of the highway used for highway
purposes. However, within incorporated cities and towns the title to
a state limited access highway vests in the state, and, notwithstanding
any other provision of this section, the department shall exercise full
jurisdiction, responsibility, and control to and over such facility as
provided in chapter 47.52 RCW;
(3) The department has authority to prohibit the suspension of
signs, banners, or decorations above the portion of such street between
the curbs or portion used for highway purposes up to a vertical height
of twenty feet above the surface of the roadway;
(4) The city or town shall at its own expense maintain all
underground facilities in such streets, and has the right to construct
such additional underground facilities as may be necessary in such
streets. However, pavement trenching and restoration performed as part
of installation of such facilities must meet or exceed requirements
established by the department;
(5) The city or town has the right to grant the privilege to open
the surface of any such street, but all damage occasioned thereby shall
promptly be repaired either by the city or town itself or at its
direction. Pavement trenching and restoration performed under a
privilege granted by the city under this subsection must meet or exceed
requirements established by the department;
(6) The city or town at its own expense shall provide street
illumination and shall clean all such streets, including storm sewer
inlets and catch basins, and remove all snow, except that the state
shall ((when necessary)) plow the snow on the roadway. In cities and
towns having a population of twenty-five thousand or less according to
the latest determination of population by the office of financial
management, the state, when necessary for public safety, shall assume,
at its expense, responsibility for the stability of the slopes of cuts
and fills and the embankments within the right-of-way to protect the
roadway itself. When the population of a city or town first exceeds
twenty-five thousand according to the determination of population by
the office of financial management, the city or town shall have three
years from the date of the determination to plan for additional
staffing, budgetary, and equipment requirements before being required
to assume the responsibilities under this subsection. The state shall
install, maintain, and operate all illuminating facilities on any
limited access facility, together with its interchanges, located within
the corporate limits of any city or town, and shall assume and pay the
costs of all such installation, maintenance, and operation incurred
after November 1, 1954;
(7) The department has the right to use all storm sewers on such
highways without cost; and if new storm sewer facilities are necessary
in construction of new streets by the department, the cost of the
facilities shall be borne by the state and/or city as may be mutually
agreed upon between the department and the governing body of the city
or town;
(8) Cities and towns have exclusive right to grant franchises not
in conflict with state laws and rules, over, beneath, and upon such
streets, but the department is authorized to enforce in an action
brought in the name of the state any condition of any franchise which
a city or town has granted on such street. No franchise for
transportation of passengers in motor vehicles may be granted on such
streets without the approval of the department, but the department
shall not refuse to approve such franchise unless another street
conveniently located and of strength of construction to sustain travel
of such vehicles is accessible;
(9) Every franchise or permit granted any person by a city or town
for use of any portion of such street by a public utility must require
the grantee or permittee to restore, repair, and replace any portion of
the street damaged or injured by it to conditions that meet or exceed
requirements established by the department;
(10) The city or town has the right to issue overload or overwidth
permits for vehicles to operate on such streets or roads subject to
regulations printed and distributed to the cities and towns by the
department;
(11) Cities and towns shall regulate and enforce all traffic and
parking restrictions on such streets, but all regulations adopted by a
city or town relating to speed, parking, and traffic control devices on
such streets not identical to state law relating thereto are subject to
the approval of the department before becoming effective. All
regulations pertaining to speed, parking, and traffic control devices
relating to such streets heretofore adopted by a city or town not
identical with state laws shall become null and void unless approved by
the department heretofore or within one year after March 21, 1963;
(12) The department shall erect, control, and maintain at state
expense all route markers and directional signs, except street signs,
on such streets;
(13) The department shall install, operate, maintain, and control
at state expense all traffic control signals, signs, and traffic
control devices for the purpose of regulating both pedestrian and motor
vehicular traffic on, entering upon, or leaving state highways in
cities and towns having a population of twenty-five thousand or less
according to the latest determination of population by the office of
financial management. Such cities and towns may submit to the
department a plan for traffic control signals, signs, and traffic
control devices desired by them, indicating the location, nature of
installation, or type thereof, or a proposed amendment to such an
existing plan or installation, and the department shall consult with
the cities or towns concerning the plan before installing such signals,
signs, or devices. Cities and towns having a population in excess of
twenty-five thousand according to the latest determination of
population by the office of financial management shall install,
maintain, operate, and control such signals, signs, and devices at
their own expense, subject to approval of the department for the
installation and type only. When the population of a city or town
first exceeds twenty-five thousand according to the determination of
population by the office of financial management, the city or town
shall have three years from the date of the determination to plan for
additional staffing, budgetary, and equipment requirements before being
required to assume the responsibilities under this subsection. For the
purpose of this subsection, striping, lane marking, and channelization
are considered traffic control devices;
(14) All revenue from parking meters placed on such streets belongs
to the city or town;
(15) Rights-of-way for such streets shall be acquired by either the
city or town or by the state as shall be mutually agreed upon. Costs
of acquiring rights-of-way may be at the sole expense of the state or
at the expense of the city or town or at the expense of the state and
the city or town as may be mutually agreed upon. Title to all such
rights-of-way so acquired shall vest in the city or town: PROVIDED,
That no vacation, sale, rental, or any other nontransportation use of
any unused portion of any such street may be made by the city or town
without the prior written approval of the department; and all revenue
derived from sale, vacation, rental, or any nontransportation use of
such rights-of-way shall be shared by the city or town and the state in
the same proportion as the purchase costs were shared;
(16) If any city or town fails to perform any of its obligations as
set forth in this section or in any cooperative agreement entered into
with the department for the maintenance of a city or town street
forming part of the route of a state highway, the department may notify
the mayor of the city or town to perform the necessary maintenance
within thirty days. If the city or town within the thirty days fails
to perform the maintenance or fails to authorize the department to
perform the maintenance as provided by RCW 47.24.050, the department
may perform the maintenance, the cost of which is to be deducted from
any sums in the motor vehicle fund credited or to be credited to the
city or town.