A Guide For Accomodating Utilites Within Highway Right Of Way

Aside from the necessary differences imposed by State and local laws, regulations, franchises, governmental/industry codes, climate, and geography, reasonable uniformity in the engineering requirements should be employed by highway agencies for regulating the use of highway right-of-way by utilities. In this respect, guidelines outlining safe and rational practices for accommodating utilities within highway right-of-way are of valuable assistance to the highway agencies. The AASHTO guidelines in this publication are provided in the interest of developing and preserving safe highway operations and roadsides. Minimizing possible interference and impairment to the highway and its structures, providing a good appearance, and minimizing maintenance are covered in these guidelines. These guidelines should be interpreted and applied to the extent consistent with State laws which give utilities the right to use or occupy highway right-of-way.

This synthesis will be of interest to highway administrators, design engineers, maintenance engineers and maintenance staff, traffic engineers, and safety officials. It will also provide useful information to the utilities and telecommunications industries. Information is presented on the state transportation agencies' policies, practices, and experience associated with occupancy of the rights-of-way on controlled (or limited) access highways. This report of the Transportation Research Board presents a brief history of accommodation of utilities in the right-of-way, including the policies developed over time by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and describes why there are issues associated with joint use of the highway right-of-way. A 1993/1994 survey of the state transportation agencies taken for this synthesis yielded 100% return, indicating the high interest in the subject. Issues included in the survey were policies and experiences regarding user and worker safety; controls placed on utilities; exceptions to right-of-way policies; and operational, legal, and equity issues.

"The Roadside Design Guide presents a synthesis of current information and operating practices related to roadside safety and is written in dual units-metric and U.S. Customary. This book is a guide. It is not a standard, nor is it a design policy. It is intended to use as a resource document from which individual highway agencies can develop standards and policies. Although much of the material in the guide can be considered universal in its application, several recommendations are subjective in nature and may need modification to fit local conditions. However, it is important that significant deviations from the guide be based on operational experience and objective analysis. The 2011 edition of the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide has been updated to include hardware that has met the evaluation criteria contained in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350: Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features and begins to detail the most current evaluation criteria contained under the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware, 2009 (MASH). For the most part, roadside hardware tested and accepted under older guidelines that are no longer applicable has not been excluded in this edition." -- AASHTO website.