Title 24, Highways, Bridges, and Ferries

Adequate roads and streets provide for the free flow of traffic; result in low cost of motor vehicle operation; protect the health and safety of the citizens of the state; increase property value; and generally promote economic and social progress of the state. Therefore, the leg…

The following words and phrases when used in this title shall, for the purposes of this title, have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this chapter: 1. "Abandonment" means cessation of use of right of way or activity thereon with no intention to reclaim or use again fo…

The state highway system may not exceed seven thousand seven hundred miles [12391.95 kilometers] in length.

The director is hereby vested with complete authority to designate, locate, create, and determine what roads, highways, and streets constitute the state highway system, subject however, to such conditions, requirements, and mileage limits as provided for by law. The total mileage…

The director is responsible for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the state highway system and may enter a cooperative agreement with any municipality for the construction, maintenance, or repair of any urban connecting street. The director may not divest the state …

To the extent possible, the department of transportation shall implement the highway performance classification plan.

Except for a municipality located within a designated metropolitan planning organization, each municipality of over five thousand population in this state, according to the latest available census, shall develop and adopt a master street plan cooperatively between the director an…

Metropolitan planning organizations shall develop, in cooperation with the state and public transit operators, transportation plans and programs for metropolitan areas which encourage and promote the safe and efficient management, operation, and development of surface transportat…

1. The department shall administer a corridors of commerce program for constructing, reconstructing, improving, and maintaining highways that improve freight transportation and facilitate commerce. 2. The corridors of commerce fund is a special fund in the state treasury administ…

The director may designate, from time to time, those roads selected under section 24-05-16, as the county highway system not exceeding twenty-two thousand five hundred miles [36210.24 kilometers] in length on which federal aid funds must be expended as may be provided by such app…

The director has the authority to abandon sections of routes on the state highway system when such abandoned sections are substantially replaced by improvements on new locations serving the area. Such abandonment may be made even though such highway is not placed on any other roa…

The department at all times shall provide and maintain a map of the state, which must show all the highways which have been designated, located, created, and constituted as part of the state highway system, the county road system, and the municipal arterial street system, and if …

All signs erected by the department, after July 1, 1967, which give notice of the prohibition against the cultivation of the right of way, must be located as near as possible to right-of-way posts, or natural obstructions. All existing signs of such nature must be relocated accor…

The governing board of any county, municipality, or township, as the case may be, may enter into a written agreement with the director for the construction of a roadway or structure of greater width or capacity than would be necessary to accommodate the normal state highway traff…

The governing body of any municipality may enter into a written agreement with the department for the maintenance of such additional width by the department, and from time to time in accordance with such agreement shall appropriate and pay into the state highway fund such sums of…

No person, firm, corporation, or limited liability company may place, put, or maintain any sign, billboard, or advertisement within the limits of a public highway, or in any manner paint, print, place, put, or affix, or cause to be painted, printed, placed, or affixed, any advert…

Every person harvesting hay on the rights of way of the state highway system, who stores the harvested hay on the rights of way for later removal, shall store the harvested hay at the outer edge of the rights of way. The director may remove any hay that is not stored as prescribe…

Any stored hay remaining on the right of way on November first of each year must be disposed of in a manner deemed proper by the director.

No state agency or political subdivision of the state may enter into any agreement to increase the no-mow acres contained in the rights of way of the state highway system.

The director and each officer and inspector of the department designated by the director have general police powers with respect to enforcement of all laws pertaining to the use of motor vehicles and trailers, other than passenger cars and motorcycles, upon the highways, roads, a…

The director may conduct investigations, research, and analysis of speed limits on any highway.

The director, with reference to highways under the director's jurisdiction, may designate as through highways any state highway or part thereof and erect stop signs or yield signs at specified entrances thereto where vehicles are not otherwise required by law to stop or yield rig…

The director has the authority to erect and maintain guardrails, stretch wires, and other devices on all highways under the director's jurisdiction, in the interest of public safety.

The director has the authority to contract, on an equitable basis with any railway company, and to let all the necessary contracts for the construction of bridges, underpasses, and approaches necessary for the separation of grades at points of intersection between railroads and t…

The director, by order, on behalf of the state, and as part of the cost of constructing, reconstructing, widening, altering, changing, locating, relocating, aligning, realigning, or maintaining a state highway, or of providing a temporary road for public use, may purchase, acquir…

Whenever the director finds that it will facilitate travel and promote public convenience or that it will avoid the need for additional road building, the director may procure rights of way and other interests in land adjacent to established public highways for the location of cu…

When the federal government has requested title to any lands acquired by the director under the provisions of sections 24-01-18.1 and 24-01-18.2 and the director certifies that the establishment of custom and immigration points of entry thereon will facilitate travel and promote …

If the director is unable to purchase land or materials with the necessary ways and access thereto, at what the director deems a reasonable valuation, then the board of county commissioners of the county wherein such land or materials may be situated, on petition of the director,…

When the award of damages for the taking of land or materials, or both, has been completed by the board of county commissioners, the director shall pay, or cause to be paid from the state highway fund, into court, for the benefit of the owners of land to whom such awards have bee…

Every owner entitled to an award for damages, before the same is paid to the owner by the clerk of court, shall sign and execute a receipt therefor. Such receipt must contain a description of the premises covered by the award. In case the owner fails or refuses to accept such awa…

At the expiration of thirty days from the award by the board of county commissioners from which no appeal has been taken as provided in section 24-01-23, whenever such money has been deposited in the office of the clerk of court, the receipt of the owners of said property, or of …

Within thirty days after notice has been given in writing to the landowner by the clerk of the district court that a deposit has been made for a taking of right of way as authorized by section 16 of article I of the Constitution of North Dakota, the owner of the property taken ma…

Any party aggrieved by the proceedings of the director in the taking of land or materials, or by the estimate of damages and the award of the board of county commissioners has the remedies provided in this title for appeal from any determination of a board of county commissioners…

No fees may be charged or collected by the county auditor, the recorder, or the clerk of court for any services rendered for the recording or filing of any document required under this chapter.

The following grants of rights of way heretofore made by the legislative assembly are hereby confirmed: 1. For a highway across the military encampment grounds at Rock Island in Ramsey County as set forth in chapter 134 of the Session Laws of 1901. 2. For a highway across Devils …

Whenever the director determines by order that public exigency requires the taking of land or materials as provided in section 24-01-18, the director shall cause the same to be surveyed and described, and a plat thereof approved by the county auditor and the said description must…

The director may vacate any land or part thereof, or rights in land taken or acquired for highway purposes under the provisions of this title, by executing and recording a deed thereof, and the vacation revests the title to the land or rights in the persons, their heirs, successo…

The director, by order, and as part of the cost of constructing, reconstructing, or repairing a state highway or any part thereof, may acquire by gift, permission, purchase, lease, or condemnation, temporary easements or rights of way for the purpose of providing a temporary deto…

The highway authorities of the state, counties, and municipalities of North Dakota, acting alone or in cooperation with each other or with any federal, state, or local agency, or any other state having authority to participate in the construction and maintenance of highways, are …

The highway authorities of the state, or any county, or municipality are authorized to so design any controlled-access facility and to so regulate, restrict, or prohibit access as to best serve the traffic for which such facility is intended. In this connection such highway autho…

For the purposes of chapter 177 of the 1953 Session Laws, the highway authorities of the state, or any county, or municipality may acquire private or public property and property rights for controlled-access facilities and service roads, including rights of access, air, view, lig…

The highway authorities of the state, or any county, or municipality may designate and establish controlled-access highways as new and additional facilities or may designate and establish an existing street or highway as included within a controlled-access facility. The state or …

The highway authorities of the state, or any county, or municipality are authorized to enter into agreements with each other, or with the federal government, respecting the financing, planning, establishment, improvement, maintenance, use, regulation, or vacation of controlled-ac…

In connection with the development of any controlled-access facility the state, county, or municipal highway authorities are authorized to plan, designate, establish, use, regulate, alter, improve, maintain, and vacate local service roads and streets or to designate as local serv…

While the necessary bridges on any state highway must be construed and considered a part of such highway, nevertheless, such bridges may be designed, erected, and contracts awarded separately therefor, and such bridges may be designed, erected, and contracted irrespective of the …

The department, at least every four years, and so far as time and conditions may permit, shall cause an inspection to be made of all bridges on the state highway system in the state. In case any bridge on the state highway system is deemed unsafe for public use by the said depart…

Electric transmission, telephone or telegraph lines, pole lines, railways, ditches, sewers, water, heat, or pipelines, gas mains, flumes, or other structures outside of the limits of any municipality which under the laws of this state, may be constructed, placed, or maintained ac…

The director may grant to any person, who is a resident of this state, or to any corporation organized under the law of this state, or licensed to do business within this state, the right of way for the erection of a telephone line or electric line over or upon any state highway …

1. Whenever the director determines and orders that any utility facility which now is, or hereafter may be, located in, over, along, or under the national system of interstate and defense highways, or urban extension thereof, qualifying for federal aid should be changed, removed,…

The legislative assembly assents that highway relocation assistance payments, as provided in the Federal Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 [Pub. L. 91-646; 84 Stat. 1894; 42 U.S.C. 4601 et seq.], and such changes or amendments thereo…