2. a. In order to ensure the expeditious completion of public highway projects, the department shall coordinate with municipalities, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, and counties to expedite project delivery.

b. The department shall develop, in conjunction with county officials, an annual highway project priority list for each county. The department shall present to county officials in each county a candidate list of State highway pavement areas rated below acceptable condition and structurally deficient State bridges located in the county. The county may select highway pavement areas and bridges from the candidate list that it deems to be priority repairs and submit the highway project priority list to the Commissioner of Transportation for the commissioner’s consideration for inclusion in the department’s capital program. Once a project from the highway project priority list has been added to the capital program, the department shall have three fiscal years to advance that project to the construction phase of work subject to the availability of funds.

c. If a project on the highway project priority list that has been placed on the capital program by the commissioner is not started within three years of that project’s inclusion in the capital program, a county may notify the department that the county intends to take over the project.

d. Once the department has been notified of a county’s intent to take over a project on the highway project priority list, the department and notifying county shall confer regarding whether the decision to allow the county or the South Jersey Transportation Authority to take over the project is cost-effective and will expedite completion of the project. The department shall have the discretion to determine whether to transfer the project to the county or the South Jersey Transportation Authority based on whether the transfer is cost-effective and will expedite completion of the project. If the department agrees to transfer the project, the department shall have 90 days from the date it agrees to the transfer to transfer all aspects of the project to the engineering department of the notifying county or the South Jersey Transportation Authority.

e. The costs of any project transferred to a county or to the South Jersey Transportation Authority pursuant to this section shall be fully funded by the department on a reimbursement basis until such costs exceed the most recent estimated cost for the project developed as part of the project schedule pursuant to subsection a. of section 1 of P.L.2019, c.196 (C. 27:1B-21.33) or, if unavailable, the estimated cost developed with the initial project schedule. If the cost of the project exceeds already existing capital program appropriations for that project, the department shall deduct the necessary amounts from the amounts granted to that county from the formula established in subsection e. of section 25 of P.L.1984, c.73 (C. 27:1B-25) through the Local County Aid Program for the fiscal year in which the costs arise or for one or more future fiscal years as determined by, and at the discretion of, the commissioner.

f. If the department and a county agree that a county or the South Jersey Transportation Authority is better suited to advance a project on the highway project priority list, the department may also enter into an agreement with the county or the South Jersey Transportation Authority to transfer a project to the county or the South Jersey Transportation Authority notwithstanding whether the project has been in the capital program for less than three years.

g. All transportation projects included in the highway project priority list and transferred by the department pursuant to subsection d. or subsection f. of this section shall comply with section 24 of P.L.1984, c.73 (C. 27:1B-24), chapters 32 through 35 of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes, and any other provision of law concerning the State’s public bidding requirements and business set-aside programs.

L.2019, c.196, s.2.