Accommodation of Longitudinal Utilities on Limited Access Right-of-Way

摘要

In general, various states and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) haveadopted a rather firm policy toward limiting joint occupancy of utilities within limited access right-of-way. The study shows that it is feasible to accommodate longitudinal utilities within control of access limit under strictly controlled conditions. Despite the restrictions imposed by current policies, it is found from the nationwide survey that the number of permitted exceptional cases exceeds 575, although most of the states do not have any such case. While allowing such utility accommodations, states designated work zone safety as a major concern. Although trade-offs were done with other adverse impacts such as environmental, scenic appearance, economic, etc., safety was always given prime importance. Data pertaining to location, environment, utility type, length and size, year of approval, access and maintenance requirements, installation procedure, work zone safety, traffic control planning and adverse impacts are collected. The collected information is analyzed and evaluation of exceptional utility cases is conducted in the study.