§ 136-44.36.  Department of Transportation designated as agency to administer federal and State railroad revitalization programs.

(a) The General Assembly hereby designates the Department of Transportation as the agency of the State of North Carolina responsible for administering all State and federal railroad revitalization programs. The Department of Transportation is authorized to develop, and the Board of Transportation is authorized to adopt, a State railroad plan, and the Department of Transportation is authorized to do all things necessary under applicable State and federal legislation to properly administer State and federal railroad revitalization programs within the State. Such authority shall include, but shall not be limited to, the power to receive federal funds and distribute and expend federal and State funds for rail programs designed to cover the costs of acquiring, by purchase, lease or other manner as the department considers appropriate, a railroad line or other rail property to maintain existing or to provide future rail service; the costs of rehabilitating and improving rail property on railroad lines to the extent necessary to permit safe, adequate and efficient rail service on such lines; and the costs of constructing rail or rail related facilities for the purpose of improving the quality, efficiency and safety of rail service. The Department shall also have the authority to preserve railroad corridors for future railroad use and interim compatible uses and may lease such corridors for interim compatible uses. Such authority shall also include the power to receive and administer federal financial assistance without State financial participation to railroad companies to cover the costs of local rail service continuation payments, of rail line rehabilitation, and of rail line construction as listed above. This Article shall not be construed to grant to the department the power or authority to operate directly any rail line or rail facilities.

(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, the acceptance of federal funds by the Department of Transportation for rail programs shall be subject to the following:

(1) Report. - For any project under subsection (a) of this section, the Department of Transportation shall report the project details, including the amounts of federal funds and any State matching funds, as well as the expected annual maintenance and operational costs to the State of the project for the next 25 years, to the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee if the General Assembly is not in session, or to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Department of Transportation if the General Assembly is in session.

(2) Consultation. - If either the amount of State matching funds required by the federal grant or the amount of future annual maintenance and operational costs of the project are reasonably expected to exceed three million dollars ($3,000,000), then the Department shall not accept the federal funds prior to consultation with the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee if the General Assembly is not in session, or with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Department of Transportation if the General Assembly is in session. Failure of the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, or the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Department of Transportation to hold a meeting with the Department of Transportation within 60 days of a written request for a meeting from the Department of Transportation shall be deemed a waiver of consultation by the committee.

(3) Approval. - If either the amount of State matching funds required by the federal grant or the amount of future annual maintenance and operational costs of the project are reasonably expected to exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000), then the Department's acceptance of funds shall be subject to approval of the project by an act of the General Assembly. If 30 days have passed since consultation or the expiration of the consultation period under subdivision (2) of this subsection, then the inaction of the General Assembly, including the lack of an extra session to address the project, shall be deemed an approval of the project, and the Department may accept the funds without an act of the General Assembly.

For purposes of this subsection, the terms "State matching funds" and "annual maintenance and operational costs to the State" shall not include funds that may pass through the Department of Transportation but that originally came from a non-State source. (1979, c. 658, s. 2; 1987 (Reg. Sess., 1988), c. 1071, s. 1; 1989, c. 600, s. 2; 2011-145, s. 28.15.)