Chap. 55.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 5 of chapter 403 of the
acts of assembly of 1922, being the act creating a State highway commission
and prescribing its powers and duties, the section here amended, being in
relation to adding additional mileage to the State highway system, as last
amended by chapter 160 of the acts of assembly of 1928. [H B 37]

Approved February 27, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion five of chapter four hundred and three of the acts of assembly
of nineteen hundred and twenty-two, being the act creating a State
highway commission and prescribing its powers and duties, as last
amended by chapter one hundred and sixty of the acts of assembly
of nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

Section 5. General powers and duties of the State highway com-
mission.—The State highway commission shall be vested with the fol-
lowing powers and duties: to locate and establish the routes to be
followed by the roads comprising the State highway system between
the points designated in the act establishing said system but where the
route has already been located and established in pursuance of law no
change shall be made in such route by the commission; provided, that
appeals under section four, chapter thirty-one of acts of nineteen hun-
dred and nineteen, pending or allowable on July first, nineteen hundred
and twenty-two, shall be heard by the commission created by this act.
The commission, however, shall not locate and establish any such route
unless and until thirty days’ written notice of its proposed action shall
have been given to the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which
the route to be located and established or any part thereof, is situated,
and also and unless and until, such notice shall have been published
at least once in a newspaper published in said county or counties, or
in some newspaper having general circulation therein, not less than
thirty days before the proposed action of the commission, and until a
local hearing shall have been had by the commission, if the same be
requested. Immediately upon the receipt of such notice, the clerk
shall notify the board of supervisors and the local road authorities
of such county.

Within thirty days after the filing of said report with the clerk
of the court, the board of supervisors or local road authorities of
said county, or any fifty or more freeholders thereof, may apply to
the commission for a rehearing of said decision, locating and estab-
lishing any such route, and the commission shall thereupon, within a
reasonable time, hear said application, and its decision on said rehear-
ing shall be final.

To let all contracts for the construction, improvement, and main-
tenance of the roads comprising the State highway system.

To make rules and regulations, from time to time, not in conflict
with the laws of this State, for the protection of and covering traffic
on and use of the State highway system, and to add to, amend, or repeal
the same, and the rules and regulations together with any additions or
amendments thereto, so prescribed shall have the force and effect of
law, and any person, firm or corporation violating any such rule or
regulation or any addition or amendment thereto, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor, and upon conviction, be fined not less than five nor more
than one hundred dollars for each offense. Such person shall be
civilly liable to the Commonwealth for the actual damage sustained
by the Commonwealth by reason of his wrongful act, which damages
may be recovered at the suit of the State highway commission and
when collected, paid into the State treasury to the credit of the State
highway fund. Said rules and regulations and any additions or amend-
ments thereto or repeals thereof shall be printed by the commission
and two copies thereof mailed forthwith to the clerk of every court
of record, one of which copies shall be posted immediately upon receipt
by the clerk, at the front door of his courthouse, and the other copy
retained in his office for the information of the public, but no such
rules and regulations or additions, or amendments thereto, or repeals
thereof, shall become effective until sixty days shall have elapsed follow-
ing their adoption by the commission. In order properly to enforce such
rules and regulations, and additions and amendments thereto, the com-
mission is given the power to designate and appoint any or all of the
employees of the commission special policemen with the powers of a
sheriff, for the purpose aforesaid. Copies of such rules and regu-
lations and of additions or amendments thereto, printed under the
authority of the State highway commission, whether of those adopted
under provisions of section four, chapter thirty-one, acts of nineteen
hundred and nineteen, or of those made and promulgated by the State
highway commission, under the provisions of this section, shall be
admissible in all of the courts of this Commonwealth without further
proof and given the force and effect prescribed hereby, and the fact
that such printed copies bear the name of the State highway com-
mission shall be prima facie evidence that they are duly adopted and
promulgated under ‘the provisions hereof and that they are true copies
of the rules and regulations, or of any additions and amendments
thereto, provided by this section. The provisions of this section shall
not apply to traction engines and tractors, weighing not less than five
tons, when drawing threshing machines, hay balers or other farm
machinery for local farm use.

To give suitable names to State highways and change the names of
any highways forming a part of .the State highway system, except
such roads as have been or may hereafter be named by the general
assembly.

To comply fully with the provisions of the present or future Fed-
eral aid acts. The said commission is hereby authorized to enter into
all contracts or agreements with the United States government re-
lating to the survey, construction, improvement and maintenance of
roads under the provisions of any present or future congressional
enactment, to submit such scheme or program for construction or
maintenance as may be required by the secretary of agriculture, or
otherwise provided by Federal acts, and to do all other things neces-
sary to carry out fully the co-operation contemplated and provided for
by present or future acts of congress for the construction, improve-
ment and maintenance of rural post roads.

It shall be the duty of the commission to keep accurate minutes
of all meetings of the commission, in which shall be set forth all acts
and proceedings of the commission in carrying out the provisions of
this act.

After July first, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, the commission
shall have the power during each calendar year, including the year
nineteen hundred and twenty-two, to add to the State highway system
road mileage not exceeding two and one-half per centum of the total
mileage of said system, as established July first, nineteen hundred and
twenty-two, but such power so to add to the system shall not be cumu-
lative; that the State highway commission of Virginia be, and it is
hereby, authorized, empowered and directed to add to the State high-
way system fifteen hundred and eighty-seven miles of road for con-
struction and maintenance by the State; said construction and mainte-
nance to be under the direction and supervision of the chairman of the
highway commission. The State highway commission is hereby author-
ized, empowered and directed to allocate the said fifteen hundred and
eighty-seven miles of rodd to the several counties of the State in pro-
portion to the area of said counties and to locate said roads in the
various counties in those sections of the counties that will, in the judg-
ment of the State highway commission, best serve the citizens of said
counties, thereby creating a system of feeder roads in each county
connecting with the now established State highway system, in said
counties, and thereby becoming a part of the said State highway
system.

The location of said mileage shall be designated on or before Sep-
tember first, nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, one-half of said mile-
age in each county shall be maintained or constructed from that date
by the State, the other half shall be maintained or constructed by the
State after July first, nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, provided,
however, no county shall receive less than eight miles, and that no
county within which lies a city wholly or in part with a population
of fifty thousand or more shall receive less than twenty-five miles.

At the first meeting of the commission, after it shall have concluded
to make additions to the State highway system as hereinbefore pro-
vided, an order shall be entered by the commission on its minute books
in which shall be set forth the terminal points of such additions, the
mileage embraced therein, as nearly as possible and a general descrip-
tion of the route thereof, and the facts that the same has been added
to, and shall thereafter be a part of the State highway system. The
addition of such road to the State highway system and the maintenance
thereof shall not preclude the commission from making changes there-
in for maintenance or construction purposes; and the State highway
commission is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to add to the
State highway system, for construction and maintenance by the State,
fifteen hundred and eighty-seven miles of road in addition to the fif-
teen hundred and eighty-seven miles and the two and one-half per
centum accumulations hereinbefore in this section provided for. The
said fifteen hundred and eighty-seven miles shall be allocated by the
State highway commission to the several counties of the State in pro-
portion to the area of said counties, provided that no county shall
receive less than eight miles; and that no county within which lies a
city wholly or in part with a population of fifty thousand or more shall
receive less than twenty-five miles. Said roads shall be such as will,
in the judgment of the commission, after the people of each county
shall have been given an opportunity to be heard, best serve the people
of the respective counties as feeder, or farm to market roads; shall
connect with State highways already established ; and shall be formally
and. finally added to the State highway system by an order to be
entered by the commission on its minute books, at the first meeting of
the commission after said roads shall have been so designated, in
which order shall be set forth the terminal points of such additions,
the mileage embraced therein, as nearly as may be possible, and a gen-
eral description of the routes thereof; and all such roads so allocated
and designated shall become, and thereafter be, a part of the State
highway system.

One-half of such mileage shall be designated, not sooner than
December first, nineteen hundred and thirty, fifty per cent of which is
so designated, to be taken over for maintenance or construction by
December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty, and the remaining
fifty per cent of which is so designated to be taken over for main-
tenance or construction by July first, nineteen hundred and thirty-one.
The remaining half of such mileage shall be designated not sooner than
December first, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, fifty per cent of
which is so designated to be taken over for maintenance or construc-
tion by December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, and the
remaining fifty per cent of which is so designated to be taken over
for maintenance or construction by July first, nineteen hundred and
thirty-three. And all roads once maintained or constructed by the
State in accordance with the provisions of this act shall thereafter
continue as a part of the State highway system for maintenance and
construction. Such roads shall be constructed by the commission, of
such types and method of construction, as it may deem proper and
necessary to make substantial farm to market roads, giving due con-
sideration to local conditions, both as to the character of the ground
over which the roads are to be built and the reasonable needs of the
people to be served.

To gather and tabulate information and statistics on road building,
maintenance and improvements, and to disseminate the same through-
out the State through farmers’ institutes, good roads associations, and
the bulletins of the department of agriculture, or otherwise, and to erect
historical and other signs along the State highways and to pay for the
same out of funds set aside for the construction of roads in the State
highway system.