Committee adopts technical changes to SB 390 on utility marking and defers the bill for funding work

Senator Alleyne introduced Senate Bill 390 and said the bill aims to address damage and repair costs from contractors failing to sufficiently mark underground utilities during large construction projects.

"When large construction projects are let for underground work…they were running into…they could not mark at the speed that they needed to mark all these lines," Alleyne said, describing contractors arriving en masse and working quickly without adequate mapping.

Alleyne said the bill needed narrowing and funding clarification. Amendment set 1994 narrowed the bill to focus on privately owned water and wastewater lines; an attorney and the sponsor described several technical edits to reduce the bill's original breadth. Senator Boudreaux moved to adopt the amendment set; the chair noted no objection and the amendments were adopted.

Alleyne and the chair said the sponsor requested time to work through funding so the bill would not place an unfunded mandate on local entities. The committee agreed to voluntarily defer SB 390 for one week to allow additional stakeholder meetings and funding work.

The transcript records the adoption of amendments by unanimous consent and the decision to defer; no roll-call votes or fiscal figures were provided in the record.