Legislative Update: 2024 Session

Funding for transportation projects, revisions to stormwater rules

By Allen Douglas Executive Director, FES and ACEC Florida

The 2024 Session of the Florida Legislature ended on March 8, after passage of the $117.46 billion 2024-2025 state budget. The session produced several ramifications for engineers in the state.

Lawmakers included $15.7 billion for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), earmarking $13.98 billion for the transportation work program. The legislature also appropriated $250 million from the Transportation Trust Fund for local projects typically funded from general revenue. During budget negotiations, the Governor’s office expressed opposition to the move, and it is unclear whether he will veto these member projects.

Lawmakers also passed legislation requiring 96% of revenue from the Seminole Gaming Compact to be set aside for the state’s environmental projects, which provides a stable source of recurring funding. It is estimated that at least $450 million will be available, including $75 million for water resource projects, $100 million for land acquisition, $150 million for flood control, and $96 million for land management. It should be noted that the 2021 gaming compact faces two challenges in state and federal court.

Staying in the environmental arena, the legislature ratified the Department of Environmental Protection’s revisions to the stormwater rules within Chapter 62-330 of the Florida Administrative Code.

The new rule:

• Creates new minimum performance standards for all environmental resource permit (ERP) stormwater systems.

• Requires applicants to demonstrate through modeling and calculations based on local conditions and annual runoff volumes that their proposed stormwater treatment system is designed to achieve the required treatment level.

• Creates new requirements for periodic inspections and the operation and maintenance of stormwater treatment systems.

• Provides new permitting criteria applicable to the construction of new dams or the alteration of existing dams.

Notably, the ratification bill included several amendments, including the expansion of grandfathering provisions and a delay of the implementation of the rule requirements for 18 months after it becomes effective.

Specific to the FDOT, legislation was passed allowing FDOT to enter into a service contract to finance projects authorized in the Moving Florida Forward Plan and authorizes the agency to retain interest earnings on such projects. The same bill removes the requirement that the Florida Transportation Commission nominate the Secretary of FDOT before being appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.

A separate piece of legislation adds phased design-build contracts to the requirements that FDOT receive at least three letters of interest in order to proceed with a request for proposals and that FDOT requests proposals from no fewer than three of the firms submitting letters of interest. The legislation also limits the amount of money that can be taken from the Transportation Trust Fund for public transit projects to 20% of annual trust fund revenue. Additionally, the bill amends provisions relating to limitations on the liability of FDOT and its contractors and design engineers.

In other action, the legislature passed legislation providing sovereign immunity protection for construction engineering and inspection (CEI) firms working as subconsultants on FDOT projects by designating these firms as “agents of the state,” as well as legislation to increase the limit for construction under a continuing contract from $4 million to $7.5 million indexed for future annual increases, and legislation limiting the use of local preference programs to projects funded in whole by the local government agency.