The Alabama Road Builder - Fall 2013 - (Page 12)

feature 2013 Legislative Wrap-up By Billy Norrell I n a year where the Alabama Road Builders Association had much to keep its arms around, the 2013 regular legislative session was one where all ARBA members helped keep their eyes on the issues. Items ranging from antiquarry bills to design build/construction manager at risk legislation were introduced into the system, and required that your association engage in the process to make sure Alabama’s transportation construction industry and contractors and suppliers and their best interests were taken care of. Early on in the session the tone was set for some exciting, but hotly debated legislation in the form of design build/ construction manager at risk (SB289). The discussion focused on how this would impact the vertical construction industry and what advantages would be provided by its passage to those who performed construction on university campuses as well as military bases. Your association worked from early on to make certain that ALDOT, municipal and county road and bridge projects were excluded from this legislation. Even with that being accomplished, there was still concern from the horizontal construction community that any new law allowing this form of project 12 delivery would potentially pose future problems for the road and bridge industry. We will be a big part of the discussion with this attempt going forward and will watch for any efforts to include road and bridge construction in this project delivery method. Another hotly debated issue involved local legislation that would prohibit the permitting of a quarry (or asphalt plants or ready-mix concrete plants) within ﬁ ve miles of a school. This ﬁght surfaced because of a proposed quarry in the Huntsville area – one that has since been permitted by ADEM and is in full production. Efforts were made to pass both a House and Senate version of this bill during the session, but business interests joined with your Alabama Road Builders Association to defend the actions of the job-creating aggregate industry to keep these bills bottled up in their respective committees. We will vigorously represent our industry against anti-business legislation such as these local bills. Gov. Robert Bentley’s RAMP (Rural Assistance Match Program), SB192, passed both bodies and became Alabama Act #13-080. This legislation will allow the Alabama Highway Finance Corporation to issue up to $25 million in bonds that could be used for the matching funds. Participating counties can receive up to $1 million from the state to obtain up to $4 million in federal funds for bridge and road projects. As a tradeoff, those counties will not take part in the next round of competition for dollars under the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program (ATRIP). Under the plan, counties and local governments are expected to provide at least 20 percent of the project costs. Twentytwo counties opted to take part in RAMP in exchange for the $5 million guarantee in state matching money and federal money. Counties that take part in RAMP must make replacement of bridges used by school buses their ﬁ rst priority for using the money. Efforts mirroring the liability legislation that ARBA championed and passed in 2012 were duplicated by the engineering community, and managed to receive passage late in the session. In addition, legislation proposing prompt payments to contractors, bills changing the composure of the Alabama Construction Recruitment Institute (ACRI - Go Build Alabama) board of directors and legislation requiring the licensing of subcontractors by the Alabama Licensing Board www.alrba.org http://www.alrba.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Alabama Road Builder - Fall 2013

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
ALABAMA ROADBUILDERS CONVENTION 2013 HIGHLIGHTS
2013 LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP
PROPOSED I-10 BRIDGE HOPES TO CURE BOTTLENECK IN MOBILE
ALDOT
HIGHWAY & BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION WORKER SAFETY
ARTBA
LEGAL
MEMBER PROFILE
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES MARKETPLACE
HEARD ALONG THE HIGHWAY
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS/ADVERTISERS.COM

The Alabama Road Builder - Fall 2013