A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to change the name of the Ferry division of the department of transportation to the marine division and to define the marine division's RESPONSIBILITIES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The Ferry Division of the Department of Transportation shall be renamed the Marine Division. In addition to any other responsibilities of the Division, it may participate in maintaining all navigable waterways and excesses in this State.
SECTION 2.  G.S. 136‑16.10 reads as rewritten:
"§ 136‑16.10.  Allocations by Department Controller to eliminate overdrafts.
The Controller of the Department of Transportation shall allocate at the beginning of each fiscal year from the various appropriations made to the Department of Transportation for State Construction, State Funds to Match Federal Highway Aid, State Maintenance, and Marine Operations, sufficient funds to eliminate all overdrafts on State maintenance and construction projects, and these allocations shall not be diverted to other purposes."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 136‑28.1(c) reads as rewritten:
"(c)	The construction, maintenance, and repair of Marine Division ferryboats and all other marine floating equipment and the construction and repair of all types of docks by the Department of Transportation shall be deemed highway construction, maintenance, or repair for the purpose of G.S. 136‑28.1 and Chapter 44A and Chapter 143C of the General Statutes, the State Budget Act. In cases of a written determination by the Secretary of Transportation that the requirement for compatibility does not make public advertising feasible for the repair of ferryboats, the public advertising as well as the soliciting of informal bids may be waived."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 136‑44.2 reads as rewritten:
"§ 136‑44.2.  Budget and appropriations.
The Director of the Budget shall include in the "Current Operations Appropriations Bill" an enumeration of the purposes or objects of the proposed expenditures for each of the construction and maintenance programs for that budget period for the State primary, secondary, and State parks road systems. The State primary system shall include all portions of the State highway system located both inside and outside municipal corporate limits that are designated by N.C., U.S. or Interstate numbers. The State secondary system shall include all of the State highway system located both inside and outside municipal corporate limits that is not a part of the State primary system. The State parks system shall include all State parks roads and parking lots that are not also part of the State highway system.
All construction and maintenance programs for which appropriations are requested shall be enumerated separately in the budget. Programs that are entirely State funded shall be listed separately from those programs involving the use of federal‑aid funds. Proposed appropriations of State matching funds for each of the federal‑aid construction programs shall be enumerated separately as well as the federal‑aid funds anticipated for each program in order that the total construction requirements for each program may be provided for in the budget. Also, proposed State matching funds for the highway planning and research program shall be included separately along with the anticipated federal‑aid funds for that purpose.
Other program categories for which appropriations are requested, such as, but not limited to, maintenance, channelization and traffic control, bridge maintenance, public service and access road construction, and Marine Division operations shall be enumerated in the budget.
The Department of Transportation shall have all powers necessary to comply fully with provisions of present and future federal‑aid acts. No federally eligible construction project may be funded entirely with State funds unless the Department of Transportation has first reported to the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations. For purposes of this section, "federally eligible construction project" means any construction project except secondary road projects developed pursuant to G.S. 136‑44.7 and 136‑44.8 eligible for federal funds under any federal‑aid act, whether or not federal funds are actually available.
The "Current Operations Appropriations Bill" shall also contain the proposed appropriations of State funds for use in each county for maintenance and construction of secondary roads, to be allocated in accordance with G.S. 136‑44.5 and 136‑44.6. State funds appropriated for secondary roads shall not be transferred nor used except for the construction and maintenance of secondary roads in the county for which they are allocated pursuant to G.S. 136‑44.5 and 136‑44.6.
If the unreserved credit balance in the Highway Fund on the last day of a fiscal year is greater than the amount estimated for that date in the Current Operations Appropriations Act for the following fiscal year, the excess shall be used in accordance with this paragraph. The Director of the Budget may allocate part or all of the excess among reserves for access and public roads, for unforeseen events requiring prompt action, or for other urgent needs. The amount not allocated to any of these reserves by the Director of the Budget shall be credited to a reserve for maintenance. The Board of Transportation shall report monthly to the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee and the Fiscal Research Division on the use of funds in the maintenance reserve.
The Department of Transportation may provide for costs incurred or accrued for traffic control measures to be taken by the Department at major events which involve a high degree of traffic concentration on State highways, and which cannot be funded from regular budgeted items. This authorization applies only to events which are expected to generate 30,000 vehicles or more per day. The Department of Transportation shall provide for this funding by allocating and reserving up to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) before any other allocations from the appropriations for State maintenance for primary, secondary, and urban road systems are made, based upon the same proportion as is appropriated to each system."
SECTION 5.(a)  The title of Article 6 of Chapter 136 of the General Statutes reads as rewritten:
"Article 6.
Marine Division, Ferries, etc., and Toll Bridges."
SECTION 5.(b)  G.S. 136-82 reads as rewritten:
"§ 136‑82.  Department of Transportation to establish and maintain the Marine Division.
The Department of Transportation is vested with authority to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a Marine Division to oversee ferries connecting the parts of the State highway system, whenever in its discretion the public good may so require, and to prescribe and collect such tolls therefor as may, in the discretion of the Department of Transportation, be expedient.
To accomplish the purpose of this section said Department of Transportation is authorized to acquire, own, lease, charter or otherwise control all necessary vessels, boats, terminals or other facilities required for the proper operation of such ferries or to enter into contracts with persons, firms or corporations for the operation thereof and to pay therefor such reasonable sums as may in the opinion of said Department of Transportation represent the fair value of the public service rendered. In addition to the operation of vessels, boats, terminals, or other facilities, the Marine Division may participate in maintaining all navigable waterways and excesses within this state.
The Department of Transportation, notwithstanding any other provision of law, may operate, or contract for the operation of, concessions on the ferries and at ferry facilities to provide to passengers on the ferries food, drink, and other refreshments, personal comfort items, and souvenirs publicizing the ferry system."
SECTION 6.  G.S. 136‑89 reads as rewritten:
"§ 136‑89.  Safety measures; guard chains or gates.
Each and every person, firm or corporation, owning or operating a public ferry upon any sound, bay, river, creek or other stream, shall have securely affixed and attached thereto, at each end of the same, a detachable steel or iron chain, or in lieu thereof a steel or iron gate, and so affixed and arranged that the same shall be closed or fastened across the opposite end from the approach, whenever any motor vehicle, buggy, cart, wagon, or other conveyance shall be driven upon or shall enter upon the same; and shall be securely fastened or closed at each end of the ferry after such motor vehicle, buggy, cart, wagon, or other conveyance shall have been driven or shall have entered upon the same. And the said gates or chains shall remain closed or fastened, at each end, until the voyage across the stream upon which said ferry is operated shall have been completed. The Marine Division of the Department of Transportation, as to ferries under its supervision, and the respective boards of county commissioners, as to other ferries, shall fix and determine a standard weight or size of chain, and a standard size, type, or character of gate, for use by said ferries, leaving optional with the said owner or operator the use of chains or gates.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."
SECTION 7.  G.S. 143B‑350(f2) reads as rewritten:
"(f2)	Approval of aircraft and ferry purposes. – Before approving the purchase of an aircraft from the Equipment Fund or a Marine Division ferry in a Transportation Improvement Program, the Board of Transportation shall prepare an estimate of the operational costs and capital costs associated with the addition of the aircraft or ferry and shall report those additional costs to the General Assembly pursuant to G.S. 136‑12(b), and to the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations."
SECTION 8.  This act is effective when it becomes law.