HF4958

Purpose

• Establish a statewide program to inventory all pedestrian crossings and bring every crossing into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by December 31, 2035.
• Create rulemaking, reporting requirements, and funding mechanisms (general fund and bonds) to support ADA compliance of pedestrian crossings.
• Provide grants and regional contracting options to fund modifications while promoting efficiency and equity, including prioritizing smaller communities and disadvantaged areas.

Key Provisions

• 174.77 Inventory of Pedestrian Crossings

  • Definitions: ADA, city, eligible recipient (a road authority), pedestrian crossing point, and noncompliant crossing.
  • Statewide inventory: The transportation commissioner must catalog all pedestrian crossing points to determine ADA compliance.
  • Classification: Each crossing point is categorized as fully compliant, partially compliant, noncompliant, or requiring inspection.
  • Inspector process: Local entities will be inspected for noncompliant crossings; the state can provide grants to accelerate inspections.
  • Grants for inspection: An expedited grant process is available for cities, towns, or counties to inspect crossings, with prioritization criteria.
  • Priorities for grants: Emphasizes areas with small populations (under 5,000), corridors with many crossings needing inspection, and areas serving low-income or disadvantaged communities.
  • Public database: The state maintains a public database showing compliance status statewide.
  • Eligible uses of grants: For expedited surveys, contracting with third parties to perform work, or debt repayment related to these efforts.

• 174.78 Accessible Pedestrian Crossings

  • State goal: Bring every pedestrian crossing into ADA compliance by December 31, 2035.
  • Who performs the work: Work may be done by regional master contracts, directly by the department, or by a local road authority; the commissioner may arrange regional multiyear contracts and request proposals for regional plans.
  • Eligible uses of grants: Design, construction, and scoping work to bring noncompliant crossings into compliance; debt repayment related to these activities.
  • Restrictions on third-party contracting: Grants cannot generally contract out all work to a third party, but may expand the scope of an existing project if more efficient.
  • Planning and prioritization: A process to decide whether work is done by local authorities or via regional contracts, coordinated with local authorities.
  • Regional prioritization: Within regions, prioritize crossings near transit routes, school zones, senior housing, high pedestrian-vehicle conflict areas, and areas with many people with disabilities.
  • Regional master contracts (Subd.4): Create regional master contracts for multiple crossings; align regions with department districts; use standardized designs; aim to address a minimum number of crossings per deployment; allow multi-year performance and clustering to cut costs; allow local participation in regional contracts and set participation requirements.
  • Towns under 5,000 residents: Cost participation requirements are waived to reduce costs for smallest towns; towns with 5,000–10,000 residents see reduced cost participation.
  • Public sector road authority projects: Allow grants to entities that use their own maintenance capacity to perform work within their jurisdiction.
  • Existing projects: Allow expanding the scope of an existing project to include noncompliant crossings when more efficient.
  • Workforce plan: Contractors bidding on regional contracts must submit a workforce plan emphasizing the use of registered apprentices and sustainable regional workforce development.
  • Prevailing wage: Workers on these projects must be paid the prevailing wage.
  • Accountability and reporting: Annual reporting by September 15 detailing costs, progress, contract status, regional breakdowns, unspent funds, and lists of eligible recipients and grant recipients.

• Funding and Accountability

  • Sec. 3 (General Fund appropriation): A one-time appropriation in fiscal year 2027 for pedestrian crossing inventory grants, available through June 30, 2029.
  • Sec. 4 (Bond appropriation): State transportation fund bond proceeds to fund grants for accessible crossings, for regional master contracts and eligible recipients; requires a bond sale under applicable state law.
  • Reporting: Ongoing accountability reporting to legislative committees, including cost estimates by region, progress, contract status, and funding remaining.

Implementation and Rulemaking

• The bill requires the Commissioner of Transportation to adopt rules to implement the inventory and accessibility programs.
• It creates processes for regional contracting, grant administration, and coordination with local road authorities.

Significant Changes to Existing Law

• Establishes a comprehensive, state‑level ADA crossing program replacing or augmenting piecemeal local efforts.
• Creates a formal inventory and public database of all crossings with ADA compliance status.
• Introduces regional master contracts and regional planning for efficient, multi-year work across regions.
• Mandates prevailing wage and a workforce plan for contractors.
• Provides new funding streams (general fund grant appropriation and bond proceeds) to support both inventory and retrofit work.
• Adds annual reporting requirements to track progress, costs, and contract activity.

Potential Impacts

• Accelerated ADA compliance across all pedestrian crossings by 2035.
• Increased transparency through public data on crossing status.
• Potential savings and efficiency from regional contracts and standardized designs.
• Financial obligation for the state, with a mix of ongoing and one-time funding and bond financing.
• Emphasis on equity, prioritizing smaller communities and disadvantaged areas.

Relevant Implementation Details

• Timeline: ADA compliance goal set for 2035; annual reporting begins after programs are established.
• Geographic focus: Statewide with regional approaches aligned to department districts.
• Local participation: Local road authorities can participate in regional contracts and may have reduced cost participation requirements for small towns.

Relevant Terms - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - ADA compliance - pedestrian crossing point - noncompliant crossing - eligible recipient (road authority) - regional master contract - local road authority - transit routes - school zones - senior housing - pedestrian-vehicle conflict - residents with disabilities - inventory/grants - inspection - rulemaking - public database - prevailing wage - workforce plan - apprentices - maintenance capacity - regional proposals or RFPs - general fund appropriation - bond proceeds - cost participation - regional districts - accountable reporting