BACKGROUND
When a transportation construction project involves the relocation of utility facilities, a state department of transportation (DOT) or other responsible agency must engage in complex negotiations involving utility companies and often other property owners, which may include acquisition of rights-of-way (ROW) or easements to facilitate the relocation and compensation to affected parties. (For purposes of this research, “ROW” refers to any real property interests associated with utility relocations.) These negotiations are subject to state and—when federal financial assistance contributes to project costs—federal statutes and regulation as well as agency and utility business practices, and they add cost, time, and sometimes delay to project delivery.
Federal regulations bring some uniformity to the processes of ROW acquisition and provision of compensation, but state and local statutes, policies, and tradition introduce substantial variation in how DOTs deal with utility relocations. Anecdotal evidence indicates that agencies differ in their practices for ROW acquisition and how they compensate utilities for relocations. Examples include when utility relocations are addressed during the project development process, if the DOT or the utility is expected to obtain the required replacement real property interests, if condemnation is employed to facilitate utility relocations, if utilities have statutory rights to be located within the highway ROW, and if such occupancy is secured by permit or transfer of real property interest. Agencies differ also in their use of shared utility easements, master agreements with utility companies, permitting rather than transfer of property rights, or incentive payments for prompt utility relocation. Some agencies may acquire ROW in anticipation of transferring it to a utility while others may be prohibited by statute from doing so.
While the statutory and regulatory environment of ROW acquisition and compensation differs from state to state, the project development process is relatively uniform among DOTs. Characterizing when and how DOTs take steps to deal with acquisition of ROW to facilitate utility relocations and analysis of agency experience with time delay and cost that these steps—or failure to take them—may add to project development can offer lessons for improving ROW acquisition and compensation practices as they relate to utility relocations.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this research was to identify effective statutory means, agency policies, and project development procedures state departments of transportation (DOTs) use to acquire rights of way (ROW) and compensate for utility relocations and to develop guidance DOTs and others may use to enhance the effectiveness of their own practices. The product of this research shall be a report, helpful to utility companies as well as DOTs, describing the primary factors influencing policies and practices, a framework for assessing effectiveness of an agency’s policies and practices, and examples of very effective policies and practices that agencies might adapt to control risks of project delay and cost increases attributable to utility relocations.
STATUS
The guide was published as NCHRP Research Report 1054: Acquiring Utility Property Interests and Reimbursing Utility Relocation Costs: A Guide and the Contractor's Final Report as NCHRP Web-Only Document 360: Acquisition of Utility Property Interests and Compensation Practices for Utility Relocations.
