Fix It, Sign It or Close It: State of Good Repair in an Era of Budget Constraints (2021)

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JULY 2021 TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM TCRP Background e nation’s 6,800 plus public transportation agencies need to have access to a program that can provide au- thoritatively researched, specic studies of legal issues and problems having national signicance and application to the public transportation industry. Some legal issues and problems are unique to transit agencies. For example, compliance with transit-equipment and operations guide- lines, FTA nancing initiatives, private-sector programs, and labor or environmental standards relating to transit operations. Also, much of the information that is needed by public transit attorneys to address legal concerns is not summarized in a single source. Consequently, it would be helpful to the transit lawyer to have well-resourced and well-documented reports on specic legal topics available to the public transportation legal community. e Legal Research Digest (LRDs) are developed to as- sist public transit attorneys in dealing with initiatives and problems associated with transit start-up and operations, as well as with day-to-day legal works. e LRDs address such issues as eminent domain, civil rights, constitu- tional rights, contracting, environmental concerns, labor, procurement, risk management, security, tort lia bility, and zoning. e transit legal research, when conducted through the TRB’s legal studies process, either collects primary data that generally are not available elsewhere or performs analysis of existing literature. NCHRP Background State highway departments and transportation agencies have a continuing need to keep abreast of operating prac- tices and legal elements of specic problems in highway law. e NCHRP Legal Research Digest and the Selected Studies in Transportation Law (SSTL) series are intended to keep departments up-to-date on laws that will aect their operations. Foreword e condition of the transportation infrastructure in the United States is an issue of national importance. State departments of transportation and transit agencies face tough choices as they make decisions about how and when to keep their assets safely open to the public. Agencies that receive federal formula grant dollars must work with their funding agencies, as well as local part- ners, to determine whether to repair, improve, rebuild or close their assets. is digest addresses the legal ramications to trans- portation agencies that have to decide whether to repair, improve, or rebuild assets that are in poor repair. is digest provides a compendium of pertinent laws and practices related to achieving a state of good repair. In addition, it addresses the legal ramications to transportation agencies when faced with prioritiz- ing infrastructure planning decisions and whether to repair, improve, rebuild substandard assets, or close. e digest also includes a detailed discussion of an agency’s require ments related to its assessment of risks. State transportation administrators, planners, re- searchers, transportation consultants, transportation and tort lawyers, and students should nd this digest benecial and informative. Fix It, Sign It or Close It: State of Good Repair in an Era of Budget Constraints This digest was prepared under TCRP Project J-5, “Legal Aspects of Transit and Intermodal Transportation Programs,” and NCHRP Project 20-06, “Legal Problems Arising Out of Highway Programs,” for which the Transportation Research Board is the agency coordinating the research. Under TCRP Topic 18-05 and NCHRP Topic 24-05, Terri Parker, Parker Corporate Enterprises, Nixa, MO, prepared this digest. The opinions and con- clusions expressed or implied in this digest are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; or the program sponsors. The responsible program officer is Gwen Chisholm Smith. NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM LEGAL RESEARCH DIGEST LEGAL RESEARCH DIGEST NCHRPLRD 84 TCRP LRD57