About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

2012 South Dakota Attorney General Reports and Opinions [i] (2012)

handle is hein.sag/sagsd0021 and id is 1 raw text is: OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 12-01, Highway Maintenance Responsibility at State/County Hwy Instersections

STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
May 7, 2012
Glenn Brenner
Pennington County State's Attorney
300 Kansas City Street #400
Rapid City, SD 57701
OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 12-01
Highway Maintenance Responsibility at State/County Highway Intersections
Dear Mr. Brenner:
You have requested an official opinion from this Office regarding responsibilities for maintenance of the driving
surfaces that lie within the state highway right-of-way where state trunk highways and county highways
intersect. Recognizing that you have narrowly framed your questions to address only existing state/county highway
intersections, I believe a broader review of the law is necessary to assist in properly addressing the issues. Your
refrained questions are as follows:
QUESTION 1:
For intersections connecting a state trunk highway with a local government highway, is the South Dakota Department
of Transportation (DOT) responsible for maintaining all connecting driving surfaces (roadways) located within the
state highway right-of-way?
ANSWER:
Responsibility for maintenance of an intersecting local government highway roadway located within a state highway
right-of-way is controlled by SDCL 31-24-9 and is dependent upon the date each highway came into existence. The
government entity of the second or intersecting highway is responsible for construction and maintenance of the
connecting roadway within the state highway right-of-way.
QUESTION 2:
Is maintenance of the roadway for Pennington County secondary highway Teewinot Drive located within the South
Dakota Highway 44 (SD 44) right-of-way the responsibility of DOT or of Pennington County, where the approach
was originally constructed by a developer as a connection to a private roadway and the county later added the
roadway to its county secondary system?

ANSWER:

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most