Sec. 201.808. TRANSPORTATION EXPENDITURE PRIORITIES. (a) The department shall develop a process to identify and distinguish between the transportation projects that are required to maintain the state infrastructure and the transportation projects that would improve the state infrastructure in a manner consistent with the statewide transportation plan required by Section 201.601.

(b) The department shall establish a transportation expenditure reporting system that makes available in a central location on the department's Internet website easily accessible and searchable information regarding the priorities of transportation expenditures for the identified transportation projects.

(c) The department shall include in the transportation expenditure reporting system:

(1) reports prepared by the department or an institution of higher education that evaluate the effectiveness of the department's expenditures on transportation projects to achieve the transportation goal;

(2) information about the condition of the pavement for each highway under the jurisdiction of the department, including the percentage of pavement that the department determines to be in good or better condition;

(3) the condition of bridges, including information about bridge condition scores;

(4) information about peak-hour travel congestion in the eight largest metropolitan areas of the state; and

(5) information about the number of traffic fatalities per 100 million miles traveled.

(d) The department shall provide the information made available under Subsection (c) in a format that allows a person to conduct electronic searches for information regarding a specific county, highway under the jurisdiction of the department, or type of road.

(e) The department shall establish criteria to prioritize the transportation needs for the state that are consistent with the statewide transportation plan.

(f) Each department district shall enter information into the transportation expenditure reporting system, including information about:

(1) each district transportation project; and

(2) the category to which the project has been assigned and the priority of the project in the category under Section 201.995.

(g) The transportation expenditure reporting system shall allow a person to compare information produced by that system to information produced by the project information reporting system.

(h) To provide a means of verifying the accuracy of information being made available through the transportation expenditure reporting system, the department shall retain and archive appropriate documentation supporting the expenditure information or data summary that is detailed in the reporting system, by archiving copies of the original supporting documentation in a digital, electronic, or other appropriate format of storage or imaging that allows departmental management and retrieval of the records. Supporting documentation may include contract or transactional documents, letter agreements, invoices, statements, payment vouchers, requests for object of expenditure payments to be made by or on behalf of the department, and other items establishing the purpose and payment of the expenditure. The documentation shall be retained for the applicable period as set forth in rules for records retention and destruction promulgated by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

(i) The department shall:

(1) conduct a comprehensive analysis regarding the effect of funding allocations made to funding categories described by Section 201.991(b) and project selection decisions on accomplishing the goals described in the statewide transportation plan under Section 201.601;

(2) provide the analysis to metropolitan planning organizations, the public, and each member of the commission for the purpose of informing deliberations on funding decisions for the unified transportation program under Section 201.991;

(3) update the analysis as part of:

(A) the department's annual update to the unified transportation program under Section 201.992 and any other formal update to that program; and

(B) the evaluation and report required by Section 201.809;

(4) promptly publish the analysis on the department's Internet website in its entirety and in summary form; and

(5) publish the methodology and data used to create the analysis on the department's Internet website and make the methodology and data available to the metropolitan planning organizations, the public, and the commission under Subdivision (2).

Added by Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1345 (S.B. 1420), Sec. 24(a), eff. September 1, 2011.

Amended by:

Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 533 (S.B. 312), Sec. 11, eff. September 1, 2017.