Title 31 — HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES

The department may acquire by gift, purchase, exchange, or condemnation from the owner, interest in any land necessary to secure the relocation, removal, or disposal of the following junk yards if it determines that the topography of the land adjoining the highway does not permit…

The department may apply for an injunction to abate any nuisance arising from a violation of the provisions of this chapter. Source: SL 1966, ch 86 , § 9; SL 2010, ch 145 , § 168. 31-30-9.1. Repealed by SL 1989, ch 254 , § 2

The Department of Transportation and board of county commissioners of the various counties shall cut or remove, or cause to be cut or removed, grass, weeds, and brush growing within the right - of - way of all public highways within their respective jurisdiction and over which su…

The owner or occupant of any land abutting or adjoining upon township roads shall cut, remove, or destroy or cause to be cut, removed, or destroyed, grass, weeds, trees, crops, and brush growing on or in the right - of - way of such roads, provided that such roads are left in suc…

Grass, weeds, trees, crops, or brush referred to in §§ 31-31-1 and 31-31-2 must be cut, removed, or destroyed between the first day of September and the first day of October of each year, or between dates annually fixed by the board of supervisors. Source: SDC 1939, § 62.0201; SL…

The Department of Transportation and any board of county commissioners may employ the necessary assistance to carry out the necessary provisions of this chapter or may have the work done by the employees regularly employed by the department or the board. The department and the bo…

If the owner or occupant of land abutting upon or adjoining township roads does not cut, remove, or destroy, or cause to be cut, removed, or destroyed, the grass, weeds, trees, crops, or brush in the right - of - way of such roads between the first day of September and the first …

The voters at each annual township election shall by majority vote determine whether the amount paid for the cleanup of township roads pursuant to 31-31-5 must be paid for by the landowner or the township. If the vote is to have the landowner pay, the amount must be certified by …

Superseded

Source: SL 1941, ch 137 ; SDC Supp 1960, § 28.0916; SL 1984, ch 211 , § 3; SL 1986, ch 237 , § 3; SL 1989, ch 21 , § 153; SL 2010, ch 145 , § 175; SL 2013, ch 129 , § 3.

Every person who intentionally digs up, removes, displaces, breaks, or otherwise injures or destroys any public highway or bridge, or any private way laid out by authority of law, or bridge upon such way, is guilty of a Class 6 felony. Source: PenC 1877, § 686; CL 1887, § 6875; R…

If any highway, culvert, or bridge is damaged by flood, fire or other cause, to the extent that it endangers the safety of public travel, the governing body responsible for the maintenance of such highway, culvert, or bridge, shall within forty - eight hours of receiving notice o…

31-32-13 Business requiring use of highway by customers as misdemeanor--Exceptions. 31-32-14 Approved ingress and egress excepted from highway use restriction. 31-32-15 Unlawful use of right-of-way as public nuisance. 31-32-16 Objects likely to fall on highway as public nuisance.…

Nothing in § 31-32-10 may be construed as imposing any liability upon the county for any injury sustained by reason of any violation of § 46-8-16 relating to bridges over ditches and canals. Source: SDC 1939, § 28.0913 as added by SL 1951, ch 140 ; SL 2021, ch 128 , § 9.

It is a Class 2 misdemeanor for any person to conduct an establishment or maintain a business the nature of which requires the use by patrons or customers of any part of the right-of-way of a state trunk highway while the patron or customer is receiving or discharging any merchan…

The provisions of § 31-32-13 do not, in any way, interfere with the rights of any person to use such means of ingress or egress to a place of business as are approved as to safety and design by the Department of Transportation and as are reasonably useful for the business conduct…

The conducting of an establishment or maintaining of a business in violation of § 31-32-13 constitutes a public nuisance and the department may bring an action to abate the nuisance or may fence the right-of-way of the state trunk highway to prevent the unlawful use. Source: SL 1…

Any tree, structure, or other object, that, because of its location and because of its age, infirmity, angle of stance, or other condition, is likely to fall, in whole or in part, upon any public highway within the State of South Dakota, so that any person using the highway at th…

If it appears to the satisfaction of any department, board, or governing body charged with the duty of the maintenance of any highway in this state, that a nuisance as defined by § 31-32-16 exists along any highway in respect to which highway the department, board, or governing b…

If the owner of the property referred to in § 31-32-17 or of the nuisance refuses or fails to voluntarily abate the nuisance within a reasonable time, the department, board, or governing body, shall bring a civil action on behalf of the public, in the proper court, to abate the n…

No person except as provided in § 31-32-3.2 may intentionally dump any load of any material or cargo on or within the highway right - of - way. A violation of this section is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Source: SL 1987, ch 212 , § 1.

Any governmental employee or person involved in the construction or maintenance of public highway right - of - way or any person authorized by permit or contract with the governmental entity with jurisdiction over the highway right - of - way may dump a load of highway constructi…

Every person who intentionally injures or destroys any tollhouse or turnpike gate is guilty of a Class 6 felony. Source: PenC 1877, § 688; CL 1887, § 6877; RPenC 1903, § 706; RC 1919, § 4310; SDC 1939, § 13.4517.

Any person who shall place a barbed wire fence across any traveled road, whether the same be or be not a public highway, without at the same time building an obstruction across said road outside of and not farther away from said fence than two rods, consisting of at least two boa…

It shall be the duty of every person who so injures or obstructs any bridge or highway as to render the same unsafe immediately to put up a danger sign and use diligence to notify one or more of the members of the board or commissioners having jurisdiction or supervision over suc…

No unauthorized person may injure any highway by removing, destroying, or otherwise altering the grade constructed for such highway or by filling, obstructing, or otherwise altering the ditch which drains the grade of such highway or otherwise injures such highway in any manner. …

Any person violating the provisions of § 31-32-3.1 , 31-32-6 , or 31-32-7 , in addition to the judgments authorized by those sections, shall also be liable in a civil action to the township, county, municipality, or other public corporation to which the highway, highway right-of-…

The governing body or board having charge of any street, road, or highway shall cause rock, stone, glass, or other obstruction placed in the street, road, or highway, to be removed, or in the event that the same is flooded by irrigation water, the street, road, or highway shall b…

For the purposes of this chapter unless the context otherwise requires, the term, arterial street, shall mean any street or highway designated by local authorities to serve primarily through traffic on continuous routes and major connecting streets or highways thereto within thei…

All construction, improvement, repair, maintenance, and marking of the arterial street system shall be under the jurisdiction and supervision of the municipality's governing body provided that said governing body may enter into agreements or contracts with the board of county com…

An arterial street system shall be designated by the governing body of each municipality of this state having a population of five thousand or more according to the last federal census, provided, however, that any municipality of the state with less than five thousand population …

The arterial street system of any municipality shall not include any sections of the state trunk highway system and shall not exceed in total mileage more than twenty - five percent of the total road and street mileage that is open to public travel within the area administered by…

It is hereby declared to be the intention of the Legislature to provide that to the greatest extent possible an arterial street system, as provided for in this chapter, shall be planned as a joint venture between first or second class municipality, county and state officials to a…

Each municipal governing body shall after due deliberation and consultation with county and state officials regarding the selection of the roads and streets that are to constitute its arterial street system take the necessary action to adopt said system and shall forward a certif…

The governing body of each municipality designating an arterial street system shall in addition to filing map and description of said system with the Department of Transportation cause certified copy of said map and description to be filed in the Office of the Auditor or auditors…

Any municipality's arterial street system may be added to, relocated, or have sections deleted as provided in §§ 31-33-8 and

Additions to the system may be made by action of the local governing agency provided the twenty - five percent limitation is not violated and that an updated map and description accompany the request to the Department of Transportation for recording. Source: SL 1969, ch 117 , § 5…

When a section or sections of the arterial street system are to be relocated or deleted, the governing body shall submit such change including a map and descriptive material to the Department of Transportation for the purpose of recording such change, provided however, that prior…

Mar. 25, 2021; SL 2022, ch 92 , § 4; SL 2023, ch 97 , § 2.

Mar. 25, 2021.

For the purposes of this chapter, the term, small structure, means any small bridge or culvert with an opening of sixteen square feet or more located on a township road or county secondary road, excluding bridges as defined in §

Before August 1, 2021, the Department of Revenue shall distribute the sum of three million dollars on a pro rata basis to each county for the purpose of planning and completing an inventory of small structures as prescribed by the Department of Transportation. For any moneys appr…

Applications for use of moneys allocated to a fund pursuant to this chapter must be submitted to the board of county commissioners on or before October thirty-first on forms prescribed by the association of county commissioners. The board of county commissioners shall award the m…

The board of county commissioners shall, at a minimum, consider the following criteria in awarding rural access infrastructure grants: (1) Traffic use of the highway; (2) Public safety; (3) Residential, commercial, recreational, and other uses of the highway; (4) Cost of the proj…

A requesting township shall timely file the township small structure improvement plan, pursuant to § 31-34-7 , with the county highway superintendent and an annual report, pursuant to § 8-10-30 , in order to be eligible for the funds. Any township requesting use of rural access i…

To be eligible to receive funding from the rural access infrastructure fund established under this chapter, a township shall, each year by August thirty-first, submit to the county that township is located in, a township small structure improvement plan and any updates shall be m…

The county commission may use rural access infrastructure funds for the construction, rehabilitation, or replacement of small structures on county secondary highways so long as such projects are considered in a similar manner as the small structures that are located within an org…

Moneys may only be used for the expenses of those small structures inventoried with the department, as referenced in §