Chapter 136

The provisions of this Article applying to municipalities apply to each consolidated city-county with respect to each urban service district defined by its governing board that includes the total area of a previously existing municipality in the same manner as if the urban servic…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of Article 3A of Chapter 136, the provisions of Article 15 of Chapter 160A, or of any other statute, the Department of Transportation may include all or part of a Municipal Street System street as part of the right-of-way of a State Highwa…

(a) Agreements Authorized. - The Department of Transportation may enter into agreements with units of local government for either of the following purposes: (1) Expediting transportation projects currently programmed in the Transportation Improvement Program. (2) Funding prelimin…

All those portions of the public road system of the State which have not been taken over and placed under maintenance or which have been abandoned by the Department of Transportation, but which remain open and in general use as a necessary means of ingress to and egress from the …

The establishment, alteration, or discontinuance of any cartway, church road, mill road, or like easement, for the benefit of any person, firm, association, or corporation, over the lands of another, shall be determined by a special proceeding instituted before the clerk of the s…

(a) If any person, firm, association, or corporation shall be engaged in the cultivation of any land or the cutting and removing of any standing timber, or the working of any quarries, mines, or minerals, or the operating of any industrial or manufacturing plants, or public or pr…

Cartways or other ways established under this Article or heretofore established, may be altered, changed, or abandoned in like manner as herein provided for their establishment upon petition instituted by any interested party: Provided, that all cartways, tramways, or railways es…

Necessary roads or easements and right-of-ways for electric light lines, power lines, water lines, sewage lines, and telephone lines leading to any church or other place of public worship may be established in the same manner as set forth in the preceding sections of this Article…

The Department will: (1) Assist and cooperate with local governments and other agencies in the development and construction of local and regional bikeway projects; (2) Develop and publish policies, procedures, and standards for planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, mark…

Bikeways may be designated along and upon the public roads. (1973, c. 1447, s. 5.)

The General Assembly hereby authorizes the Department to include needed funds for the program in its annual budgets for fiscal years after June 30, 1975, subject to the approval of the General Assembly. The Department is authorized to spend any federal, State, local or private fu…

This Article may be cited as the North Carolina Bicycle and Bikeway Act of 1974. (1973, c. 1447, s. 1.)

As used in this Article, except where the context clearly requires otherwise, the words and expressions defined in this section shall be held to have the meanings here given to them: (1) Bicycle: A nonmotorized vehicle with two or three wheels tandem, a steering handle, one or tw…

The General Assembly hereby finds that it is in the public interest, health, safety, and welfare for the State to encourage and provide for the efficient and safe use of the bicycle; and that to coordinate plans for bikeways most effectively with those of the State and local gove…

The Department is designated as such State agency, responsible for developing and coordinating the program. (1973, c. 1447, s. 4.)

The Department of Transportation shall have authority to determine the safe load-carrying capacity for any and all bridges on highways on the State highway system. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to drive, operate or tow on any bridge on the State highwa…

(a) The Department of Transportation is hereby directed to replace all bridges on the State highway system containing long through truss spans over 125 feet long with less than a 12 feet clear roadway width. The Department shall initiate a bridge replacement program as soon as po…

(a) Establishment. - The Department of Transportation shall rename the "system preservation program" the "bridge program". (b) Permissible Uses. - Funds appropriated, allocated, credited, or otherwise transferred to the bridge program established under subsection (a) of this sect…

Railroad companies, erecting bridges across watercourses, shall attach and keep up good and sufficient draws, by which vessels may be allowed conveniently to pass. (1846, c. 51, ss. 1, 2; R.C., c. 101, s. 32; Code, s. 2051; Rev., s. 2701; C.S., s. 3800.)

If any person shall fasten any decked vessel or steamer to any bridge that crosses a navigable stream, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and in the case of a bridge that crosses a county line, may be prosecuted in either county. (R.S., c. 104; R.C., c. 101, s. 31; 1858…

The Department of Transportation shall have the power to erect and maintain adequate footways over swamps, waters, chasms, gorges, gaps, or in any other places whatsoever, whenever said Department of Transportation shall find that such footways are necessary, in connection with t…

(a) Powers of Department. - The Department of Transportation is vested with authority to provide for the establishment and maintenance of ferries connecting the parts of the State highway system, whenever in its discretion the public good may require, and shall prescribe and coll…

The Department of Transportation is vested with authority to purchase liability insurance, hull insurance, and protection insurance on all vessels and boats owned, leased, chartered or otherwise controlled and operated by the Department of Transportation. (1961, c. 486; 1973, c. …

Authority of county commissioners with regard to ferries and toll bridges; rights and liabilities of owners of ferries or toll bridges not under supervision of Department of Transportation. Subject to the provisions of G.S. 136-67, 136-99, and 153-198, the boards of commissioners…

Each and every person, firm or corporation, owning or operating a public ferry upon any sound, bay, river, creek or other stream, shall have securely affixed and attached thereto, at each end of the same, a detachable steel or iron chain, or in lieu thereof a steel or iron gate, …

The General Assembly finds that the existing State road system is becoming increasingly congested and overburdened with traffic in many areas of the State; that the sharp surge of vehicle miles traveled is overwhelming the State's ability to build and pay for adequate road improv…

The following definitions apply to this Article: (1) Department. - The North Carolina Department of Transportation. (2) Turnpike Authority. - The public agency created by this Article. (3) Authority Board. - The governing board of the Turnpike Authority. (4) Turnpike project. - E…

(a) Creation. - There is created a body politic and corporate to be known as the "North Carolina Turnpike Authority". The Authority is constituted as a public agency, and the exercise by the Authority of the powers conferred by this Article in the construction, operation, and mai…

(a) The Authority shall have all of the powers necessary to execute the provisions of this Article, including the following: (1) The powers of a corporate body, including the power to sue and be sued, to make contracts, to adopt and use a common seal, and to alter the adopted sea…

(a) Findings. - The General Assembly finds that there is a need for a bridge connecting the Currituck County mainland to the Currituck County Outer Banks; that the bridge should be implemented as a toll bridge; that the bridge should be implemented in a manner that protects the n…

Bonner Bridge Replacement Project. (a) Contract for Accelerated Construction of the Herbert C. Bonner Replacement Bridge Project. - The Department of Transportation shall implement all reasonable measures to expedite completion of environmental reviews required by the National En…

(a) Contract for Accelerated Construction of the Yadkin River Veterans Memorial Bridge Replacement Bridge Project. - The Authority shall study, plan, develop, undertake preliminary design work, and analyze and list all necessary permits, in preparation for construction of a repla…

(a) General. - The Authority may acquire public or private real property by purchase, negotiation, gift, or devise, or condemnation that it determines to be necessary and convenient for the construction, expansion, enlargement, extension, improvement, or operation of a Turnpike P…

Property owned by the Authority is exempt from taxation in accordance with Section 2 of Article V of the North Carolina Constitution. (2002-133, s. 1.)

The operations of the Authority shall be subject to the oversight of the State Auditor pursuant to Article 5A of Chapter 147 of the General Statutes. (2002-133, s. 1.)

The Authority Board is prohibited from converting any segment of the nontolled State Highway System to a toll facility, except for a segment of N.C. 540 under construction as of July 1, 2006, located in Wake County and extending from the N.C. 54 exit on N.C. 540 to the N.C. 55 ex…

(a) Revenues derived from a Turnpike Project authorized under this Article shall be used only for the following costs associated with the Project from which the revenue was derived or a contiguous toll facility: (1) Authority administration costs. (2) Development, right-of-way ac…

The Authority shall be a municipality for purposes of Article 5 of Chapter 159 of the General Statutes, the State and Local Government Revenue Bond Act, and may issue revenue bonds pursuant to that Act to pay all or a portion of the cost of a Turnpike Project or to refund any pre…

Revenue bonds of the Authority issued pursuant to G.S. 136-89.189 and the State and Local Government Revenue Bond Act shall be sold in accordance with and pursuant to Article 7 of Chapter 159 of the General Statutes. (2002-133, s. 1.)

The Department of Transportation may participate in the cost of preconstruction activities, construction, maintenance, or operation of a Turnpike Project. (2002-133, s. 1.)

Only those funds applied to a Turnpike Project from the State Highway Fund, State Highway Trust Fund, or federal-aid funds that might otherwise be used for other roadway projects within the State, and are otherwise already subject to the formula under G.S. 136-189.11 shall be inc…

(a) Repealed by Session Laws 2025-47, s. 4, effective July 1, 2025. (b) Annual Report. - The Authority shall, promptly following the close of each fiscal year, submit an annual report of its activities for the preceding fiscal year and an annual audit of its books and accounts fo…

(a) Motor Vehicle Laws. - The Turnpike System shall be considered a "highway" as defined in G.S. 20-4.01(13) and a "public vehicular area" as defined in G.S. 20-4.01(32). All law enforcement and emergency personnel, including the State Highway Patrol and the Division of Motor Veh…

The Department shall publish and update annually on its website a record of all expenditures of the Authority for highway construction, maintenance, and administration. The record shall include a total expenditure amount by county. For each Turnpike Project, the record shall incl…

The Authority shall, upon fulfillment of and subject to any restrictions included in the agreements entered into by the Authority in connection with the issuance of the Authority's revenue bonds, remove tolls from a Turnpike Project. (2002-133, s. 1.)

The Department shall maintain an existing, alternate, comparable nontoll route corresponding to each Turnpike Project constructed pursuant to this Article. (2002-133, s. 1.)

(a) General. - Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article, the Authority may collect tolls on any existing interstate highway for which the United States Department of Transportation has granted permission by permit, or any other lawful means, to do so. The revenue gener…

(a) Authority. - Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article, the Authority may designate one or more lanes of any highway, or portion thereof, within the State, including lanes that may previously have been designated as HOV lanes under G.S. 20-146.2, as high-occupancy t…

The definitions in G.S. 136-89.181 and the following definitions apply in this Article: (1) Reserved. (2) Open road toll. - A toll payable under an open road tolling system. (3) Open road tolling system. - A system of collecting a toll for the use of a highway that does not provi…

In exercising its authority under G.S. 136-89.183 to set tolls for the use of a Turnpike project, the Authority may not do any of the following: (1) Set open road tolls that vary for the same class of motor vehicle depending on the method by which the Authority identifies a motor…