[HISTORY: Adopted by the Rockland County Legislature 1-15-2002
by L.L. No. 2-2002.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
[1]
Editor's Note: This local law was vetoed by the County Executive,
which veto was overridden by the County Legislature 3-5-2002 by Res. No. 118-2002.
This chapter shall be known as "Rockland County Citizens' Highway
Statute."
A.
The County of Rockland is responsible to provide services
and facilities for the good of County residents.
B.
The County has established and maintains public roadways
throughout Rockland County owned by the County for the use, safety and convenient
access of the public.
C.
As part of the normal maintenance of County-owned roads
the County does maintenance, development and construction on, under and over
said County roads, as well as granting permission to other municipalities
and third parties to do the same on said roads.
D.
There is a need to have procedures and regulations established
and in place as to how and when construction activities and other activities
on County roads, including such items as resurfacing, constructing, repair,
widening, reconfiguration, improvement, digging upon, installation of utilities
and other items, so as to ensure that the safety and convenience of the public
are adequately considered and addressed by those performing such services.
E.
There have been reports brought to the attention of the
Legislature of the poor planning of road projects that have inconvenienced,
unnecessarily, the public by the timing of the work, the lack of proper coordinated
traffic control, the lack of advanced notification of the closing and/or obstruction
of the roads and other work-site issues that could be avoided by better planned
and proper pre-construction preparation, notification and procedures.
F.
The temporary closing of County roads and/or obstruction
of traffic flow during construction activity, if not made known to numerous
emergency service providers and affected businesses, can create a potential
for injury to the public and delay of emergency services to citizens.
G.
It is the intention of the Rockland County Legislature
to create a requirement to compel all persons that work upon, repair, demolish,
enlarge or otherwise perform activities that disrupt the traffic flow and
use of County-owned roads during the process of performing construction activities
or other services on, under or over County-owned roads that there shall be
a mandated procedure as to how temporary road traffic and obstructions shall
be accomplished.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
A diverse but representative group of Rockland County residents residing
within the general geographic area where construction activity is planned
and intended.
Those activities of a duration greater than 24 hours which are part
of road maintenance, widening, reconfiguration, improvement, rehabilitation,
construction, resurfacing, trench digging, installation or repair to utilities
on, in or under any County-owned road. Included as part of this construction
activity shall be parking, placing or using of heavy equipment, backhoes,
vehicles, cones, traffic barriers and mechanical equipment or any temporary
or permanent blocking of a roadway on or in the County-owned road bed, easement
or dedicated strip.
Those described or shown on the County Road System Map as County
roads to be maintained or constructed by the County, as defined in the State
Highway Law § 115, including the paved area and also unpaved portions
of the easement, right-of-way or dedicated roadway.
Those construction activities which are required to address a situation
caused by an act of God or casualty such as accidental or criminal acts of
fire damage, building collapse, road, sidewalk or utility destruction or interruption
and such other similar unplanned, unforeseeable events which require immediate
attention and repair in order to protect the public safety.
Any public service provider of emergency services, such as fire,
health, ambulance, or police service within the County of Rockland.
Those facilities and buildings that are municipal offices of County,
Town or Village facilities, together with publicly funded organizations such
as libraries, ambulance corps, hospitals and emergency service providers (i.e.,
police and fire).
To transmit in writing or in person to 44 control and any additional
party(s) or entity that may be required by the Superintendent of Highways
for Rockland County or established procedures, as an entity to receive written
or personal notice of a traffic flow plan for any construction activity, including
road detours, obstructions or other activity.
Any activity or position of physical object(s) which is in, on or
over the County-owned road bed, easement or dedicated road area as shown on
the filed map of County-owned roads covered by Highway Law § 115
which blocks, totally or in part, a County-owned road, which will last more
than 15 minutes and may cause vehicular traffic to be stopped, redirected
around or away from the construction activity.
Any natural person, firm, partnership, limited-liability company,
association, joint venture, or corporation, exclusive of a public corporation
pursuant to Article 2-A of the General Construction Law.
The steps taken by the use of procedures, personnel and timing activity
so as to eliminate or reduce the obstruction of County road pedestrian and
vehicular traffic.
Any activity, material, equipment, vehicle or personnel which is
part of a construction activity being performed on a County-owned road which
by its location, movement use or placement is or may become an interference
with vehicle and/or pedestrian movement on said County-owned roads.
A document, whose content and format shall be as established by the
Rockland County Superintendent of Highways and approved by the Legislature,
which shall describe the construction activity intended, its proposed beginning
and ending dates, the approved hours of construction activity, the intended
efforts of the applicant's personnel or contractors that will be taken
during construction activity to minimize or eliminate vehicle traffic delays
or public inconvenience, including but not limited to detours, flagging locations,
procedures (listing the number of personnel dedicated to such flagging, the
anticipated use of signs, cones, lights, and interpersonnel communications;
(i.e., hand signaling, flagging, wireless communications, etc.). The plan
must set forth the intended location and/or portions of the work site that
will have planned traffic flow obstructions, the efforts that will be used
to minimize the duration of said obstruction of traffic flow, with an agreement
to terminate said obstruction at high traffic flow times when possible and
a statement that the construction personnel will be instructed on their need
to avoid and/or minimize traffic flow obstruction(s) duration(s).
A.
It shall be required that any person who performs any
construction activity upon a County-owned road must adhere to the following
procedures:
(1)
No construction activity shall be performed upon a County-owned
road without first obtaining the written permission of the Superintendent
of Highways of the County of Rockland or his designee in advance of starting
said activity.
(2)
Whenever a person performing construction activity plans
or expects an obstruction of a County-owned road for construction activities,
said person shall file with the Rockland County Highway Department a traffic
flow plan and a request for permission from the Superintendent of Highways
for authority to perform said construction activity. In addressing the traffic
flow obstruction, the applicant shall detail what methods of traffic flow
minimization it will put in place during the period of traffic flow obstruction.
(3)
All traffic flow plans shall be received and approved
by the Superintendent of Highways or his designee prior to the beginning of
any construction activity.
(4)
In advance of beginning a construction activity, the
person in charge of the construction activity workers shall give notification
to emergency service providers, adult-home facilities, hospitals and governmental
offices that are within the municipality of the site of the location of construction
activity, or any other person(s) as the Superintendent of Highways may direct,
of the anticipated construction activity and of the traffic flow plan that
said person will implement to minimize the obstruction of pedestrian and vehicle
flow in that area. The content of said construction activity notice shall
be as determined by the Rockland County Superintendent of Highways, or his
designee, as may be amended by him from time to time.
B.
It shall be mandated that any party that undertakes construction
activity upon a County-owned road shall use due diligence at all times during
said construction activity to assure that traffic flow obstructions will be
eliminated when possible and minimized when they do occur. When appropriate,
the construction activity should be performed at hours and/or dates that will
attempt to accommodate the normal traffic flow on County-owned roads in relation
to peak usage period(s) and/or scheduled or anticipated activities of that
road so as to minimize the obstruction of County roads.
C.
For any construction activity which is projected to require
more than one month of duration to complete, the County Legislator of the
affected district within which such project is being performed, at his or
her option, may establish a citizens' advisory panel to encourage, generate
and receive public input as to the import of the proposed construction activity
and traffic flow and analysis of ways to minimize inconvenience to the surrounding
residents and the general public.
D.
The requirement to obtain written permission [Subsection A(1)] in advance of any construction activity and to file a traffic flow plan in advance of performing a construction activity [Subsection A(2)] and obtaining the approval of the Superintendent of Highways [Subsection A(3)] of a filed traffic flow plan prior to performing construction activity [Subsection A(3)] shall be waived for the first 48 hours from the beginning of construction activity if the work is required to address an emergency repair.
The Rockland County Superintendent of Highways or his designee may adopt
rules and regulations, subject to the approval of the County Legislature,
for the enforcement of and compliance with this chapter. The Superintendent
of Highways or his designees may give directions to persons in charge of the
construction activity, or the persons working at any construction activity
location, with the purpose of accomplishing traffic flow minimization, which
directive shall be complied with, and the failure to comply with said directive
shall be a violation of this section.
For each violation of the provisions of this chapter (including the
adopted rules and regulations of the of the Superintendent of Highways as
approved by the Rockland County Legislature) shall subject a violator to a
civil penalty of up to $250 for the first offense. For the second and subsequent
offenses of this chapter at the same location or at new County-owned road
locations by the same violator within a three-year period shall subject the
offending person to a civil penalty of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000
per violation.
