SECTION 27.51. Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

(1) AASHTO--The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

(2) Commission--The Texas Transportation Commission.

(3) Department--The Texas Department of Transportation.

(4) Design manual--The latest editions of and successors to all design manuals available from the department, including but not limited to the following:

(A) Roadway Design Manual;

(B) operations and procedures manual of the Environmental Affairs Division;

(C) Pavement Design Manual;

(D) Bridge Design Manual;

(E) Bridge Project Development Manual;

(F) Bridge Geotechnical Manual;

(G) Hydraulic Design Manual;

(H) Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices;

(I) standard highway sign designs for Texas; and

(J) traffic control standard sheets booklet of the traffic operations division.

(5) Development costs--Costs associated with the development of a toll facility before all environmental clearances required to commence construction of the facility have been obtained, including, but not limited to, expenses incurred for the preparation of preliminary engineering, traffic and revenue estimates, major investment studies, environmental impact or assessment studies, and feasibility studies and analyses.

(6) Environmental Permits, Issues, and Commitments (EPIC)--Any permit, issue, coordination, commitment, or mitigation obtained to satisfy social, economic, or environmental impacts of a project, including, but not limited to, sole source aquifer coordination, wetland permits, stormwater permits, traffic noise abatement, threatened or endangered species coordination, archeological permits, and any mitigation or other commitments associated with any of those issues.

(7) Executive director--The executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation or designee.

(8) Financial assistance--Participation by the department in the cost of a toll project by providing a requestor with project funding or other contributions funded by the department, as authorized by Transportation Code, §222.103, §366.301, §370.301, and §372.002.

(9) Interoperability--With respect to the technology used or to be used by a requestor as part of an electronic toll collection system:

(A) the transponders utilized or to be utilized by the requestor can be read and properly processed by the transponder technology utilized by the department and other governmental and private entities operating toll facilities in this state; and

(B) the transponder technology utilized or to be utilized by the requestor can read and properly process information transmitted by transponders utilized by the department and other governmental and private entities operating toll facilities in this state.

(10) Metropolitan planning organization--An organization designated in certain urbanized areas to carry out the transportation planning process as required by Title 23, United States Code, §134.

(11) MPO--A metropolitan planning organization.

(12) Nonattainment area--An area designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as not meeting the air quality standards outlined in the Clean Air Act.

(13) Requestor--The public or private entity requesting financial assistance under this subchapter.

(14) Transponder--A device placed on or within a motor vehicle that is capable of transmitting information used to assess or collect tolls.

(15) Toll project entity--Has the meaning assigned by Transportation Code, §372.001.

Source Note: The provisions of this §27.51 adopted to be effective August 15, 2002, 27 TexReg 7178; amended to be effective March 18, 2004, 29 TexReg 2745; amended to be effective May 16, 2018, 43 TexReg 3122