Title 54, Highways, Bridges And Ferries

In accordance with the bond resolution, the county trustee shall place in a special account, known as the county highway bond account, the amounts of state-aid road funds and state aid funds received for county highway purposes, but not exceeding fifty percent (50%) of the state …

(a) (1) After the sale of the bonds for the construction of the approved projects, the county legislative body may authorize the county highway department to undertake one (1) or more of the projects or may direct that the project or projects be accomplished by contract.(2) In th…

(a) The department of transportation shall prepare a model contract and performance bond, which the counties, without exception, alteration or modification, shall use, except for filling in appropriate blanks, or spaces, as may be necessary to complete the contract and bond. (b) …

(a) From time to time the department of transportation shall inspect the work as it progresses on the project. (b) On all county road and highway projects, the contractor shall be entitled to payments on account of the contractor's contract in the same way and manner as payments …

(a) Before final acceptance of the project as having been finally completed, the contractor shall furnish evidence to the chief administrative officer of the county highway department, if any, and/or the chief fiscal officer of the county, that all the materials used by the contr…

All roads and ferries laid out or appointed agreeably to law are to be deemed public roads and ferries.

The county legislative body has the power to build, repair, and maintain bridges and highways, and pay for the building, repair, and maintenance of bridges and highways out of general county funds, and, through commissioners and a superintendent of the county jail or workhouse, h…

(a) The county legislative bodies shall classify the public roads in the counties, but shall not divide them into more than four (4) classes of widths, as described in § 54-10-104, and shall specify in each class the width of roadbed between ditches and the distance between fence…

(a) All roads laid off and worked under this chapter shall be known and classified as roads of the first, second, third and fourth class. (b) Roads of the first class shall be not more than one hundred feet (100′) nor less than twenty-four feet (24′) wide; roads of the second cla…

(a) Any county legislative body, a majority of the members assenting, may elect or appoint three (3) commissioners authorized to employ engineers and other necessary and expert service to survey, inspect, and classify all roads that have already been laid off or accepted by the c…

The commission shall make a full report of its acts and recommendations to the county legislative body quarterly, attaching to the report maps, charts, plans, and specifications, itemized and showing in detail the estimated costs of the proposed improvements.

When the report of the commission is submitted to the county legislative body, the county legislative body shall take a vote on the report, and, if a majority of the members vote for adopting the report of the commissioners, the vote shall be entered of record and the report spre…

The county legislative body of each county may designate and appropriately mark on appropriate county roads, or portions of county roads, routes for the use of bicycles.

(a) The possession of a municipal or county traffic control sign erected upon any municipal or county street, road or highway by any person who is not an employee of a municipal or county highway department, or who has not entered into a contract with a municipality or county for…

(a) The possession of a municipal or county street, road or highway sign erected upon any municipal or county street, road or highway by any person who is not an employee of a municipal or county highway department, or who has not entered into a contract with a municipality or co…

All applications to open, change, or close a road shall be made by written petition, signed by the applicant, to the commissioner of the district through which the road runs or is asked to be located, specifying in particular the changes or action asked; or, if the road extends i…

No road shall be opened, changed, or closed, without giving at least five-days' notice to all interested parties of the time the road or roads are to be opened, changed, or closed, and a surveyor or civil engineer may be employed, if necessary, to locate the interested parties. L…

If any owner of the land affected by the opening, changing, or closing of a public highway is a nonresident, then notice to the owner's agent or attorney, if the owner's agent or attorney resides in the county, shall be sufficient. If there is no such agent or attorney, then the …

(a) Where the opening, changing, or closing of a public highway only affects one (1) commissioner's district, the commissioner shall associate with two (2) other freeholders of the district with whom the commissioner has never consulted on the question involved, and who shall be …

The jury of view has the power of condemnation and to assess damages, which shall be paid out of the general funds raised for county purposes, upon the order of the commissioner on the county mayor, who shall issue a warrant if the county mayor approves the order.

(a) Any person aggrieved by the action of the jury of view may appeal to the court of general sessions, and from there to the circuit and appellate courts. (b) In case of an appeal, the jury of view shall forward all the papers in the case, with its action on the case, to the cou…

(a) All costs accruing in the suit shall be paid by the appellant, if the action of the jury of view is sustained by the court giving final decision, unless for good reason it should otherwise order. (b) Should the case be decided against the action of the jury of view, then all …

If the action of the jury of view be affirmed, the commissioner or commissioners shall then proceed as if no appeal had been taken; if otherwise, the order of the court shall be carried out.

All persons appealing from the decision of a jury of view to any court having jurisdiction of the matter shall execute a bond for the costs of the suit.

In case of an appeal, the district attorney general shall attend to the case for the county in the circuit court, and shall be paid the sum of five dollars ($5.00) for each case attended to, to accrue to the state, and the attorney general and reporter shall represent the county …

The jury of view each shall receive two dollars ($2.00) per day for services, which, with other costs and damages accruing on the opening, changing or closing of roads, shall be paid out of the general county funds, upon the order of the commissioner upon the county mayor, upon w…

When landowners and those controlling land touched by the highway proposed to be opened, changed or closed waive, in writing, any claim for damages sustained by the opening, changing or closing, then the commissioner or commissioners shall proceed, independently of a jury of view…

The commissioner may, without petition or application, proceed to open, change, close and construct any public highway that the commissioner deems necessary for the public interest.

(a) Where any two (2) road districts are involved in any question requiring a jury of view, the two (2) commissioners and one (1) freeholder shall constitute the jury. (b) Where three (3) or more districts are involved, then the commissioners of all the districts interested shall…

The court in which any suit or controversy for establishing a ferry or laying out a road is pending shall hear and determine it at the first term after it is docketed.

(a) Notwithstanding this part to the contrary, a county legislative body, by resolution adopted by a two-thirds (⅔) majority vote, may adopt this subsection (a) as an alternative procedure for the opening, changing, and closing of public roads in the county that are not maintaine…

It may be lawful for county legislative bodies to clear out fords of rivers where public roads cross the fords, upon the plans and conditions set forth in this part.

At the April session of the county legislative body, a majority of the members consenting, the members of each civil district in the county shall report those fords to the county mayor that they think should be cleared of obstructions, and the county legislative body shall act on…

(a) The fords shall be cleared of all loose rock, and all fastened rock shall be battered down that can be done by a heavy, blunt, or square-end crowbar or sledge hammer. (b) All other obstructions that can be conveniently removed, and all rubbish removed, shall be deposited wher…

The width of the ford shall depend upon the use the public makes of it, but it shall not be required to be cleared over sixty feet (60′) wide.

The county clerk shall make out a list of the propositions reported by the county mayor, and give it to the sheriff, who shall immediately advertise at the different fords proposed to be cleared, or at some public place near the fords, that contracts will be given to bidders at t…

Each contractor shall return to the August session of the county legislative body, or some subsequent session, a certificate, with two (2) responsible freeholders signed as witnesses, that the contractor has complied with the law set forth in § 54-11-103. Then the county mayor sh…

Bridges shall be made by the overseer and the overseer's assistants, through swamps and over small runs and creeks, for which purpose, as well as for making causeways, the overseer may cut poles and other necessary timber, without incurring any penalty.

Bridges that cannot be built by the overseer and the overseer's assistants shall be a county charge, and the county legislative body shall make a levy on the taxables to raise money for the purpose, and shall contract and agree for building, keeping, and repairing the bridges.

When a bridge is necessary over any creek or river that divides one county from another, the legislative body of each county shall join in an agreement for building, keeping, and repairing it, and the charge shall be defrayed by both counties in proportion to the number of taxabl…

Every contract, agreement, and order for bridges shall bind the county that makes or enters into it.

It is the duty of the county legislative bodies, in letting out all contracts for the erection of bridges, to require that they be made secure, with good and substantial railing of the height of three feet (3′).

In addition to the powers vested in and exercised by county legislative bodies over public roads and bridges, the county legislative bodies respectively are empowered, the same being a county purpose, to build a bridge or bridges over and across any stream or river running throug…

(a) The bridge or bridges shall be paid for by special tax, not to exceed, in any year, twenty cents (20¢) on the one hundred dollars' ($100) worth of property, to be levied by the county legislative body annually on all taxable property of the county, until the bridge or bridges…

Should it, in the opinion of the county legislative body, appear that the cost of the bridge or bridges will exceed the amounts raised by taxation the county legislative body sees as proper to levy during the time the bridge or bridges are being constructed, the excess may be pro…

(a) Whenever, in the opinion of the county legislative body, it will be best so to do, it may submit to a vote of the people of the county the question of whether any bridge shall be built or not. (b) The county legislative body shall direct the county election commission to hold…