Chap. 31.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to es-
tablish a State highway commission, to define its powers and duties;
the term of office, salary and qualifications of the commissioner; to
authorize the commissioner to call into consultation the professors of
engineering in certain State institutions, and appropriating money
to carry the provisions of this act into effect, approved March 6, 1906;
to provide for the appointment of a commission, and fixing their term
of office; to give to said commission the power of eminent domain: the
power to make and enforce rules and regulations governing the traffic
on and use of the State Highway System, not in conflict with the laws
of this State, and to prescribe penalties for the violation of such rules
and regulations. [H B 16]

Approved September 5, 1919.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an
act entitled an act to establish a State highway commission, to
define its powers and duties, the term of office, salary and quali-
fications of the commissioner, to authorize the commissioner to
call into consultation the professors of engineering in certain
State institutions, and appropriating money to carry the pro-
visions of this act into effect, approved March sixth, nineteen
hundred and six, be amended and re-enacted as follows:

1. The governor shall, on or before February first, nineteen
hundred and twenty, and on or before February first in every
sixth year thereafter, appoint, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the senate, a citizen of this State, possessing the quali-
fications prescribed by this act, to the office of State highway
commissioner, whose term of office shall be six years, and sha!l
begin on the first day of July next succeeding his appointment.
In the event of a vacancy occurring during the commissioner’s
term of office it shall be filled by the governor, subject to con-
firmation by the senate at the next ensuing session.

2. No person shall be eligible to the office of State high-
way commissioner unless he is a citizen of the United States
of America and unless he is a civil engineer and a person well
versed in road building.

A commission is hereby created to be known as the State
highway commission, which shall consist of five members, who
shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and
consent of the senate, and who shall be removable from office
during their respective terms by the governor for cause. The
first appointment of members of the commission shall take place
as soon as practicable after this bill becomes a law. The term
of office of all of said members shall begin on November first,
nineteen hundred and nineteen, and shall end on July first, nine-
teen hundred and twenty-two. After February first and before
March first, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, the governor
shall appoint five members of the commission for the following
terms: two for a term of two years; two for a term of four
years, and one for a term of six years; all beginning July first,
nineteen hundred and twenty-tws} and their successors shall
thereafter be appointed for a term of six years by the gov2rnor
on or before February first in the years in which their rcspec-
tive terms of office will expire.

Members of the commission shall be chosen so as to give
representation as nearly as possible to each of the five grand
divisions of the State.

Vacancies on the commission shall be filled by the governor
and shall be effective until fifteen days after the meeting of the
next ensuing general assembly thereafter.

4. The commissioner shall have power to locate and estab-
lish the routes to be followed by the roads comprising the State
highway system between points designated in the act establish-
ing said system, but the right of appeal to the commission from
the decision of the commissioner is hereby given to the consti-
‘uted local road authorities or to the citizens on petition of fifty
or more freeholders in the district, county, city or town affected
oy any particular decision of the commissioner involving the
location of routes to be followed. It shall be the duty of the
said commissioner, upon the establishment and location of such
route, whether heretofore or hereafter made, to file a report of
the same with the clerk of the circuit court or corporation court
of the county or city in which such road is located, showing the
location of said road, and the appeal hereinbefore provided for
shall be taken within thirty days from the filing of such report
with such clerk. Immediately upon receipt of such notice the
clerk shall notify the local road authorities of such city, county
or district. Such appeal shall be heard forthwith and decided
by the commission, and in case of such appeal the commission
may hear such evidence as shall be properly brought before it
and may view the routes and shall determine which route will,
in its judgment, best serve the interests of the State, and its
decision shall be final; provided, that notice of the time and
place when the said commission will hear such appeal shall be
given by said commission at least ten days prior to such hear-
ing, which notice shall be sent by registered mail to the clerk
of the circuit court of the county or corporation court of the
city from which said appeal was taken, and by any additional
notice said commission shall consider proper; and provided that,
where the route has already been located and established by the
commissioner, under the authority conferred upon him by an
act approved January thirty-first, nineteen hundred and eigh-
teen, entitled “an act to establish the State highway system,”
no change shall be made in such route by the commission. The
commissioner shall also have power, subject to the approval of
the commission, to apportion to the various road projects in the
system the available State and federal funds for each calendar
year, beginning with the year nineteen hundred and twenty, and,
so far as, practicable, the funds for each year shall be allotted
by April first of each year, but the commission shall not approve
such apportionment until after a public hearing at which politi-
cal subdivisions of the State and interested citizens may be
heard. The commission shall have power to make rules and
regulations, not in conflict with the laws of this State, covering
traffic on and use of the State highway system and the rules
and regulations so prescribed shall have the force and effect of
law, and any person, firm or corporation violating any such
rule or regulation shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon
conviction thereof, be fined not less than five dollars ($5.00)
nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for each offense.
Said rules and regulations 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 of each court at the front door of the
courthouse in each city and county, and the other copy retained
in his office for the information of the public, but no such rules
and regulations shall become effective until sixty days shall be
elapsed following their adoption by the commission. In order
to properly enforce such rules and regulations, the commission
is given the power to designate and appoint any or all of the
employees of the State highway department, employees of the
State convict road force, or any other person, special policeman,
and when so appointed, said special policeman shall be vested
with the powers of a sheriff for the purpose of enforcing the
provisions of the road and automobile laws, and it shall be their
duty to see to such enforcement.

The commission shall also have power to fix the salaries of
the assistant highway commissioner and those employed by the
State highway department, provided the State highway commis-
sioner shall receive five thousand dollars per annum and his
necessary traveling expenses, and that the assistant State high-
way commissioner shall not receive less than three thousand
dollars ($3,000.00) nor more than forty-five hundred dollars
($4,500.00) per annum and his necessary traveling expenses.

The commission is hereby vested with the power of eminent
domain in so far as may be necessary for the establishment, lo-
cation, construction, reconstruction, alteration, maintenance and
repair of the roads embraced in the “State highway system,”
and for these purposes and all purposes incidental thereto, may
condemn rights of way of such ‘width and on such routes and
grades as by said commission may be deemed requisite and suit-
able; and lands, quarries and locations, with rights of ingress
and egress, containing gravel, clay, sand, stone, rock, timber,
and any other road materials deemed by the commission useful
or necessary in carrying out the purposes aforesaid.

Proceedings for condemnation hereunder shall be instituted
and conducted in the name of “the State highway commissioner
of Virginia,” and the procedure shall, except in so far as altered
hereby, be mutatis mutandiam the same as is prescribed by law
for railroad corporations, and the rights of all persons affected
shall be subject to the general laws of this State in so far as
the same may be applicable under the general purposes of this
act, and except as hereby altered or modified.

The proceedings for condemnation shall be by petition to
the circuit court of the county in which the land, property and
rights or the major portion thereof sought to be acquired are
located, or to the judge of such court in vacation, which petition
shall set forth with reasonable particularity a description and
designation of the interests, rights and property intended to be
taken, the name or names of the landowners whose property is
to be taken or affected, and such other facts as may be deemed
necessary by the commission to give full information to the
court and all persons in interest, and shall be verified by oath
of a member of the commission or by its duly authorized agent
or attorney.

Upon the return of the report of the commissioners or view-
ers appointed in such proceedings.the sum ascertained thereby
as compensation or damages to the property owners may be
paid to the person or persons entitled thereto, or for them into
court or to the clerk thereof, upon which title to the property
and rights condemned shall vest in the Commonwealth of Vir-
ginia in fee simple, or to such extent as may be prayed for in
the petition, and the commission shall have the right to enter
upon such construction upon or use of the property and rights
condemned as may be authorized by said report, provided the
right of appeal from or review of said report on exception there-
to is hereby given to the property owner or to the commission,
to the circuit court, on the question only of damages or com-
pensation.

The commission, however, without the institution of condem-
nation proceedings, may take from the most convenient lands
so much wood, stone, gravel, earth or other material as may be
necessary to be used in the construction, reconstruction and
maintenance of any of the roads and bridges embraced in the
State highway system.

If the owner or tenant of any such land shal] deem himself
injured thereby and the commission or its agent can agree with
such owner or tenant as to the amount of damage caused by
said taking, they shall pay said damage to the owner or tenant,
as the case may be, but if an agreement cannot be reached, then
a justice of the peace in the county wherein the land is situated
shall, upon application to him by said owner or tenant, issue a
warrant to three freeholders of said county requiring them to
review the said land and ascertain and report what is a just com-
pensation to such owner or tenant for the damage done to him
by such taking, the said freeholders, after being sworn, shall
ascertain such compensation and report the same to the com-
mission or its duly authorized agent. The commission may
thereupon allow the full amount so agreed upon or reported by
said freeholders, or so much thereof as to the commission may
seem reasonable, subject to the right of such owner or tenant
to appeal to the circuit court of the county wherein the land
lies, as in other cases. ,

5. The State highway commissioner shall have an assistant,
who shall be a civil engineer, and he may employ such other as-~
sistants and clerks, including a chief clerk, as the needs of the
department require, provided the highway commission shall
approve such employment. Such additional assistants and clerk
shall be paid from any fund appropriated to carry on the work
of the State highway commission.

6. The State highway commission shall meet quarterly, and
at such other times, on the call of the commissioner or chairman,
as may be deemed necessary to transact such business as may
properly be brought before it. Three members shall constitute
a quorum of the commission for all purposes. Members of the
commission shall receive ten dollars ($10.00) per diem and their
actual expenses while engaged in the work of the commission,
to be paid from the highway contingent fund, provided that no
member of the commission shall receive in excess of one thousand
dollars and actual expenses in any one year.

7. All salaries and contingent expense shall be paid from
funds appropriated for the work of the highway commission,
and to carry out the provisions of this act. Warrants for sal-
aries and expenses of the highway department shall be issued
by the auditor of public accounts on certificates of the State
highway commissioner to the parties entitled thereto, and shall
be paid by the State treasurer out of the funds appropriated for
that purpose. And the State highway commissioner shall an-
nually, at the end of each year, render to the governor an item-
ized account of all moneys expended by said department.

8. The State highway commissioner and the members of
the commission, shall, in the same manner, take and return the
oath prescribed by law for other State officers.

9. The superintendent of public buildings shall provide
suitable offices for the State highway commission in the city of
Richmond.

10. The State highway commissioner shall have general
supervision of the construction and maintenance of roads in the
State highway system, and the commissioner may recommend
to the local road authorities of any county, and to the governor,
needed improvement in the public roads; he shall supply tech-
nical information on road building to any citizen or officer of
the State, and from time to time publish for public use such
information as will be generally useful for road improvement,
and the commissioner shall make a biennial report to the gov-
ernor of the conduct and work of his office.

It shall be the duty of the State highway commission to
gather and tabulate information and statistics on road build-
ing, maintenance and improvement, and to disseminate the same
throughout the State through farmers’ institutes, the Virginia
good roads association, and the bulletins of the board of agri-
culture or otherwise.

11. The State highway commission shall submit to the
governor in writing at least ten days before the regular sessions
of the general assembly in the year nineteen hundred and twenty,
ind at least thirty days before each regular session thereafter,
ts recommendations as to changes and additions in ahd to the
state highway system and such other recommendations as to
‘oads and road legislation as it may deem proper, which recom-
nendations the governor shall transmit to each house of the
reneral assembly as soon as possible after the opening of the
session thereof.

12. The State highway commissioner or said commission
may call into consultation for any engineering problem con-
fronting him, the professor of civil engineering of the univer-
sity of Virginia, the Virginia military institute and the Virginia
agricultural and mechanical college and polytechnic institute,
or any one or two of them. It shall be the duty of said pro-
fessors to aid and assist the said commissioner or commission
and to furnish him or them with any information or knowl-
edge in their power; and when not actually engaged in academic
work they may view any road work, bed or quarry, or visit any
other place deemed necessary by the commissioner or commis-
sion or the professor for the assistance of the commissioner or
commission. They shall receive their actual expenses while en-
gaged in such service.

13. Nothing in this act shall in any way affect the powers
and duties conferred upon the highway commissioner under the
laws of this State relating to roads other than those embraced
in the State highway system, but all-acts or parts of acts affect-
ing the State highway system in conflict with this act are
hereby repealed.

14. By reason of the necessity of creating a commission and
apportioning and supervising the large amounts of money tc
be expended on the State highway system, an emergency is
hereby declared to exist, and this act shall be in force from its
passage.