Title 33.2, Title 33.2. Highways and Other Surface Transportation Systems

The Board shall allocate, use, and distribute the proceeds of any bonds it is authorized to issue on or after July 1, 2007, pursuant to subdivision 10 of § 33.2-1701, as follows: 1. A minimum of 20 percent of the bond proceeds shall be used for transit capital as further describe…

Pursuant to subsection A of § 33.2-358, the Board shall make the following payments to counties that have withdrawn or elect to withdraw from the secondary state highway system under the provisions of § 11 of Chapter 415 of the Acts of Assembly of 1932 and that have not elected t…

In allocating highway funds, the Board may use such funds for highway aid to mass transit facilities when such use will best accomplish the purpose of serving the transportation needs of the greatest number of people. Highway aid to mass transit may be accomplished by (i) using h…

For transportation construction projects valued in excess of $100 million, the Commissioner of Highways shall require that a financial plan be prepared and presented to the Board for its review. This plan shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (i) a complete cost es…

A. For purposes of this section: "General condition rating" means a rating of a major bridge component collected in accordance with 23 C.F.R. § 650.315, as may be amended. "State of good repair purposes" means improvement of deficient pavement conditions and improvement of bridge…

A. As used in this section, "high-priority projects" means those projects of regional or statewide significance, such as projects that reduce congestion or increase safety, accessibility, environmental quality, or economic development. B. The Board shall establish a high-priority…

A. As used in this section: "Land area" means the total land area of the counties within a highway construction district reduced by the area of any military reservations and state or national parks or forests within its boundaries and such other similar areas and facilities of fi…

A. The Board shall establish the Interstate Operations and Enhancement Program (the Program) to improve the safety, reliability, and travel flow along interstate highway corridors in the Commonwealth. B. The Board may use funds in the Program to address identified needs in the St…

A. The Board shall establish the Virginia Highway Safety Improvement Program (the Program) to reduce motorized and nonmotorized fatalities and severe injuries on highways in the Commonwealth, whether such highways are state or locally maintained. The Board shall use funds set asi…

A. For purposes of this section, "special structure" means very large, indispensable, and unique bridges and tunnels identified by the Commissioner and approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. B. The General Assembly declares it to be in the public interest that the mai…

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning: "Limited access highway" means a highway especially designed for through traffic, over which abutters have no easement or right of light, air, or access by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon …

The Board may plan, designate, acquire, open, construct, reconstruct, improve, maintain, discontinue, abandon, and regulate the use of limited access highways in the same manner in which it is now or may be authorized to plan, designate, acquire, open, construct, reconstruct, imp…

The Board may designate all or any part of an existing highway as a limited access highway. When an existing highway is so designated, the Board shall where necessary extinguish all existing easements of access, light, or air.

No commercial establishment or business enterprise shall be constructed or located upon any right-of-way of any limited access highway.

The Department may construct service roads parallel to a limited access highway in order to provide access at designated points for property owners abutting on the limited access highway and after the construction of such service roads shall maintain and regulate traffic over the…

The Board is authorized to designate any highway as a scenic highway or as a Virginia byway. This designation shall be made in cooperation with the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Prior to designation, the local governing body and local planning commiss…

In selecting a Virginia byway, the Board and the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation shall give preference to corridors controlled by zoning or otherwise, so as to reasonably protect the aesthetic or cultural value of the highway.

When the Board designates a highway as a scenic highway or as a Virginia byway, it shall be appropriately signed as such.

When the Board has designated a highway as a Virginia byway or as a scenic highway, the Commissioner of Highways may acquire by gift or purchase such land, or interests therein, of primary importance for the preservation of natural beauty adjacent to Virginia byways or scenic hig…

Every owner or occupier of a dam over which a state highway passes shall keep such dam in good order, at least 12 feet wide at the top, and also keep in good order the substructure of a bridge of like width over the pier heads, floodgates, or any wastecut through or around the da…

The Commissioner of Highways may, at his own cost and expense, widen or strengthen any dam or bridge over which a state highway passes to a sufficient width to provide properly for traffic that uses that section of highway of which such dam or bridge forms a part. The Commissione…

The owner or occupier of a dam shall raise or lower the floodgates on such dam when there is an impending flood in order to reduce the level of the water in the pond, and when it comes to the attention of the Commissioner of Highways that this has not been done, or that the owner…

If a dam is washed out and the owner refuses to replace the dam, the Commissioner of Highways, with or without the consent of such owner or occupier, may construct a highway across the dam, but in case the owner desires to replace the dam and use the pond, he shall be permitted t…

In case the earthen portion of a dam has been washed away and it is determined by the Commissioner of Highways that the washout was caused by a spillway of insufficient opening to carry floodwater, the dam shall not be restored for the purpose of impounding water unless the owner…

Sections 33.2-409 through 33.2-413 shall also apply to dams, over which pass public roads that are not in the primary or secondary state highway system, and to the owners and occupiers thereof. As to any such dam and the owner or occupier thereof, the powers conferred and imposed…

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning: "High-occupancy requirement" means the number of persons required to be traveling in a vehicle for the vehicle to use HOT lanes without the payment of a toll. Emergency vehicles, law-enforcement vehicles be…

A. In order to facilitate the rapid and orderly movement of traffic to and from urban areas during peak traffic periods, the Board may designate one or more lanes of any highway in the Interstate System, primary state highway system, or secondary state highway system as HOV lanes…

The Board may designate one or more lanes of any highway, including lanes that may previously have been designated HOV lanes under § 33.2-501, in the Interstate System, primary state highway system, or National Highway System, or any portion thereof, as HOT lanes. In making HOT l…

Any person operating a motor vehicle on designated HOT lanes shall make arrangements with the HOT lanes operator for payment of the required toll prior to entering such HOT lanes. The operator of a vehicle who enters the HOT lanes in an unauthorized vehicle, in violation of the c…

A. The HOT lanes operator may enter into an agreement with the Department of Motor Vehicles, in accordance with the provisions of subdivision B 21 of § 46.2-208, to obtain vehicle owner information regarding the owners of vehicles that use HOT lanes and with the Department of Tra…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the provisions of §§ 22.1-187, 33.2-501, 33.2-613, 46.2-819, and 46.2-819.1 shall not apply to HOT lanes.

The Board may acquire by purchase, condemnation, or gift any ferry within the Commonwealth that forms a connecting link in a state highway and may purchase all equipment and other things necessary for the establishment of new ferries to become connecting links in the primary or s…

The public free ferry across the Corrotoman River, in the County of Lancaster, authorized by Chapter 156 of the Acts of Assembly of 1847, shall be kept according to such act, except as otherwise provided in this section. The Circuit Court of Lancaster may have the contract for ke…

When an act is passed to authorize the erection of a toll bridge, if the work is not commenced within one year from the passage of such act or is not completed within two years after such commencement or if, after its completion, there is an abandonment of the toll bridge or a fa…

Every toll bridge shall be made so as not to obstruct the passage of fish or the navigation of the watercourse over which it is erected.

Tolls shall be received for passing a bridge only after it appears to the circuit court of the county where the bridge is located that the bridge is completed according to the act authorizing it. The court shall ascertain whether it is so completed by appointing three disinterest…

A. The circuit court of any county in which there is a toll bridge or its approaches, or the circuit court of any county in which lies any part of any toll bridge or bridges or their approaches belonging to the same proprietor, but which toll bridge or bridges or their approaches…

No toll bridge erected after March 19, 1928, shall be constructed, maintained, or operated across, in, or over any navigable waters in or of the Commonwealth, anything in the charter of any company to the contrary notwithstanding, unless a permit is first obtained from the Board.…

Detailed plans, estimates, and specifications shall be submitted to the Board for approval before construction is commenced on a toll bridge or approaches under a permit granted under § 33.2-606. No such toll bridge shall be constructed until such plans, estimates, and specificat…

In addition to the power of eminent domain as provided by law for highways in the primary state highway system, the Commonwealth, acting through the Commissioner of Highways, may purchase any such toll bridge and the approaches thereto with the real estate and tangible personal p…

In the event a toll bridge, at the time it is purchased by the Commonwealth under the provisions of §§ 33.2-602 through 33.2-610, is not on the line of a highway then in one of the systems of state highways, the Commissioner of Highways may convey such toll bridge and approaches …

Nothing contained in §§ 33.2-606 through 33.2-609 shall be construed to apply to any bridge existing or under construction on March 20, 1928, or to bridges constructed within or adjacent to towns or cities having a population of more than 3,500.

A. In order to provide an incentive for motorists to travel at off-peak hours, and in accordance with federal requirements, wherever a toll is imposed and collected by the Department or such other entity as may be responsible for imposing or collecting such toll, the amount of su…

Except for those persons exempted from tolls under § 33.2-613, it shall be unlawful for the Department or any employee thereof to give or permit free passage over any toll bridge, tunnel, or ferry that has been secured through the issuance of revenue bonds and which bonds are pay…

A. Upon presentation of a toll pass issued pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Board, the following persons may use all toll bridges, toll ferries, toll tunnels, and toll roads in the Commonwealth without the payment of toll while in the performance of their official dutie…

A. Neither the Department nor any other operator of any toll bridge, toll road, or other toll facility nor any employee or contractor with the Department or other toll facility operator shall disclose any information derived from an automated electronic toll collection system abo…