Legislative Session number- 82

Bill Name: SF1769

E Relating to transportation; defining rural agricultural business for highway
specific service informational signs purposes; correcting the descriptions of
trunk highways 42, 105 and 117 and adding a description for route 337,
description changes to be effective upon the signing and filing of certain
transfer of jurisdiction agreements; authorizing the commissioner of
transportation (DOT) to convey fee title or easements held or owned by the state
in land used to construct roads to connect closed off highways, streets or roads
with another public highway or to reconnect private roads to the property owners
served by the roads; authorizing the commissioner as a condition of awarding
transportation construction contracts in the taconite tax relief area to require
the contractor to hire a certain percentage of workers with principal place of
residence in the area; requiring owner consent for commissioner reconveyance of
real property taken through eminent domain to the property owner; requiring
commissioner or local authority posting of established work zone speed limits
and authorizing the establishment of a higher highway work zone speed limit on
divided highways; authorizing the commissioner to set the dates for winter
highway seasonal gross weight increases based on a freezing index model;
modifying certain responsibilities of the commissioner relating to appearances
on public transportation matters; recodifying the provision requiring the
commissioner to cooperate with federal agencies to harmonize state and federal
transportation regulations, authorizing the commissioner to conduct joint
hearings with federal agencies, to approve and establish freight rates and
charges departing from the distance principle and to nominate members to joint
boards as provided by federal acts; abolishing the transportation regulation
board, transferring certain responsibilities relating to motor or common rail
carriers from the TRB to the commissioner and modifying or eliminating certain
former duties of the commissioner relating to common carriers; discontinuing
certain trunk highways upon transfer of jurisdiction agreements between the
commissioner and Crow Wing, Ramsey and Washington counties and the city of
Brainerd; specifying certain phrase or term change and renumbering instructions
to the revisor of statutes; repealing certain provisions relating to cabooses,
the removal or abandonment of railroad tracks, the regulation of railroad
stations and terminals and the resolution of certain railroad disputes by the
commissioner (mk, ja)