New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 17 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND UTILITY SERVICES › Chapter 4 - UTILITY RIGHTS OF WAY AND EASEMENTS › Part 2 - REQUIREMENTS FOR OCCUPANCY OF STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM RIGHT-OF-WAY BY UTILITY FACILITIES › Section 17.4.2.20 - UTILITY RELOCATION PROCEDURES

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
The following procedures shall be followed to assure the
				  proper completion of utility relocation necessitated by the State Highway
				  Program. To provide uniformity and avoid duplication, these procedures shall be
				  followed on all State Highway Projects whether or not Federal Aid participation
				  is involved. The FHWA's reimbursement to the New Mexico State Highway and
				  Transportation Department will be governed by State Law and State Regulations,
				  as well as the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 23, Part 645, Subpart A and
				  Subpart B. When State Law or Regulation differs from the aforementioned Code,
				  (Part 645, Utilities), a determination shall be made by the Department, subject
				  to concurrence by FHWA, as to which standards shall govern, and the record will
				  be documented accordingly for each relocation in which the differing procedural
				  action is undertaken. The Department shall develop a Utility Cooperative
				  Agreement for handling the relocation of utilities. The Agreement shall clearly
				  stipulate the responsibilities of each party for financing and accomplishing
				  the relocation work, shall incorporate the appropriate regulation(s) by
				  reference and designate the method to be used for performing the work. The
				  method for developing all relocation costs, including engineering and
				  relocation construction, shall be acceptable to the Department and to the
				  Federal Highway Administration on Federal Aid projects. When applicable, the
				  Agreement shall specify the terms and amounts of any contributions or
				  repayments made or to be made by the utility to the Department under
				  eligibility provisions of State Laws and Federal Regulations. When the
				  relocation involves both work to be done at the Department's expense and work
				  to be done at the expense of the utility, the Agreement shall state the share
				  to be borne by each party. Except as otherwise provided by this Agreement,
				  authorization by the Department to the utility to proceed with the relocation
				  work may be given after it has been included in an approved program and
				  fulfills State and Federal requirements. If the utility does not have the
				  necessary resources to perform the relocation, such work may be done as
				  follows:
(1) a contract awarded by the
				utility to the lowest qualified bidder based on appropriate procurement
				procedures;
(2) inclusion as part
				of the Department's highway construction contract let by the Department as
				agreed to by the utility; or
(3) an
				existing continuing contract, provided the costs to the Department are
				reasonable. All contract work performed for the utility under a contract let by
				the Department shall be reported separately from the other contract items on
				the highway project. All utility relocation costs shall be recorded by means of
				work orders in accordance with a work order system approved by the Department,
				except when another method of developing and recording costs, such as a
				lump-sum agreement, has been approved by the Department, and the Federal
				Highway Administration when applicable. The utility shall keep its work order
				system or other accounting procedure approved by the Department in such a
				manner as to show the nature and cost of each item. The current Federal Aid
				Policy Guide shall be used as a guide for all cost development and
				reimbursement matters. All reimbursed costs shall be subject to state audit for
				a period of three years following the date of final payment.
A.
Locating utilities:
On all
				proposed highway construction and/or maintenance projects, utilities shall be
				located horizontally, vertically, shall be identified as to type and ownership,
				and their locations tied to the project center line. The locating process
				should meet, as a minimum, survey requirements outlined in the Department's
				Survey Manual, unless otherwise specified. Railroad facilities must also be
				treated as a utility, the facilities located and tied to the center line of
				track or other railroad structure, and referenced to existing railroad mile
				posts. The location should be conducted early enough in the project development
				process so as to allow for inclusion of the utility and/or railroad information
				in the highway construction Field Design Inspection plans.
B.
Location stage:
The Railroad
				and Utility Section of the Department shall become involved at the inception of
				each State Highway Project. The earliest conceptual design information
				available shall be reviewed to determine whether possible serious utility
				conflict can be avoided by minor highway alignment revisions without undue
				added cost. The assigned Agent should discuss the possibility of alignment
				changes with the assigned Project Development and Design Engineers as
				appropriate, and any other observations that have been made that might improve
				cost benefits to the project concerning the utility facilities. Liaison with
				the utility owners involved shall begin at this stage to avoid the installation
				of new utilities by the utility owners that could conflict to an even greater
				extent. If preliminary right-of-way maps are available, a preliminary review
				could disclose the extent of the utility involvement and give the Agent a
				workable idea as to the eligibility each owner may have for utility relocation
				reimbursement. Preliminary coordination meetings with all of the affected
				utilities in attendance should serve to avoid future problems concerning where
				each utility owner must place their relocated utilities to avoid conflict with
				the other utilities involved.
C.
Project programming procedures:
Utility adjustments eligible for
				reimbursement on Federal-Aid Highway Projects shall be programmed in accordance
				with the requirements set forth in Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations,
				Part 630(A). Generally, utility relocations and utility relocation engineering
				will be programmed when the initial state highway project programming is
				accomplished. Preliminary Engineering for the use of Consultant Engineers
				engaged by the utility owner will be programmed each time these services are
				required and authorized by the Department and the FHWA. The utility lead time
				cannot commence until the Utility Section has access to plans sufficiently
				completed to permit the utilities to design their relocations. Therefore, the
				plans should be in the post Grade & Drain or pre-Plan-in-Hand stage, with
				definite line grades, right-of-way, access control and other major features
				shown before they may be sent to the utilities with the formal authorization to
				proceed with their preliminary engineering. Prior to this stage, any plans
				provided to utilities must clearly be marked as "preliminary" with a statement
				that they are not yet authorized to proceed on any basis.
D.
Preliminary engineering:
Before preliminary engineering is authorized on a project, the basic
				eligibility for reimbursement of utility adjustment cost must be determined
				from a plan review. This eligibility is to be in conformity with the
				reimbursement policy set forth in Paragraph 19 [now 17.4.2.19 NMAC] herein.
				Plan review will, in most cases, resolve questions of such
				eligibility.
E.
Engineering
				by utility's staff, or a consultant engineer:
Preliminary engineering
				for utility relocation design can be accomplished by any of the following
				methods:
(1) By utilization of the utility
				owner's engineering staff;
(2) By
				utilization of a consultant engineer selected by the Department after
				consultation with the utility owner; contract shall be administered by the
				Department with the consent of the utility; or
(3) By the utilization of a consultant
				engineer selected by the utility owner under a contract approved by the
				Department and FHWA; the contract shall be administered by the utility
				owner.
(4) When the utility is not
				adequately staffed to perform the necessary preliminary engineering work
				related to the utility relocation on a State Highway Construction Project,
				Department and Federal funds may be used to reimburse the utility owner for
				amounts paid to engineers, architects, and others for allied services, provided
				such amounts are not based on a percentage of the relocation costs. The
				Department, utility owner and the engineering consultant shall agree in writing
				as to the services to be performed and the fee amount to be paid for the work
				in advance of the commencement of the engineering services agreed upon. The
				approval of these arrangements by the FHWA shall be obtained on all Federal Aid
				Projects.
(5) State and Federal
				funds may participate in the cost of consultant engineering services performed
				on existing continuing contracts between the utility and the consultant when it
				can be demonstrated that such work is performed regularly for the utility at a
				reasonable cost.
(6) The basic
				eligibility for reimbursement for the utility relocation costs must be
				determined from near final highway construction Plan and Profile Sheets
				developed after the Department's Grade and Drain Inspection. A utility owner
				must be otherwise entitled to utility relocation reimbursement costs to be
				eligible for payment for utility relocation preliminary engineering (PE). The
				PE written authorization is a commitment by the Department to reimburse the
				utility for PE, subject to compliance with these regulations.
(7) If the utility relocation preliminary
				engineering is determined to be ineligible for reimbursement after the plan
				review, a non-reimbursable PE notice will be sent to the utility owner
				requesting that they commence their relocation design effort at their own
				expense, and on a schedule which would insure that the utility relocation
				construction would be completed in a timely manner.
(8) If the project should be abandoned,
				postponed, or delayed by the Department, the utility is entitled to be paid for
				their design effort from the date of the PE authorization to the date of
				abandonment, but only if the utility was eligible initially for utility
				relocation PE.
(9) If a highway
				project is delayed, substantially revised or even abandoned and the utility has
				incurred engineering costs at the request of the Department, such costs are not
				eligible for reimbursement if the relocation is not reimbursable.
(10) It should be noted by the utility owner
				that any costs incurred by the utility owner in the initial negotiation phase,
				including early engineering reviews and relocation planning, will not be
				reimbursed. The Department shall not be liable for reimbursing any utility PE
				costs prior to notification and proof by the utility of its compensable
				property rights and after the Department has provided the utility written
				authorization of its intent to reimburse the utility for its costs of
				relocation.