Chap. 448.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 of an act en-
titled an act to create a State highway commission; to provide for a chairman
thereof; and to prescribe the powers, duties and the compensation of the com-
mission and chairman; and to provide for a State highway commissioner; to
create road construction districts; to provide for the apportionment among
them of road construction funds, and to provide for road construction, improve-
ment, maintenance and preservation, also to repeal sections 1962, 1963, 1964,
1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1974 and 1975 of the Code of Virginia, and to repeal
an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to establish
a State highway commission; to define its powers and duties; the term of office,
salary and qualifications of the commissioner; to authorize the commission
to call into consultation the professors of engineering in certain State institu-
tions, 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 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 regula-
tions, approved September 5, 1919, and to repeal all other sections of the Code
and acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act, approved Maren 7B Me)

152
Approved March 21, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
two, three, five, seven and ten of an act entitled an act to create a State
highway commission; to provide for a chairman thereof; and to prescribe
the powers, duties and the compensation of the commission and chair-
man; and to provide for a State highway commissioner; to create road
construction districts; to provide for the apportionment among them of
road construction funds, and to provide for road construction, im-
provement, maintenance and preservation, also to repeal sections nine-
teen hundred and sixty-two, nineteen hundred and sixty-three, nine-
teen hundred and sixty-four, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, nineteen
hundred and sixty-six, nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, nineteen hun-
dred and sixty-eight, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine, nineteen hun-
dred and seventy-four and nineteen hundred and seventy-five of the
Code of Virginia, and to repeal an act entitled an act to amend and re-
enact an act entitled an act to establish a State highway commission;
to define its powers and duties; the term of office, salary and qualifica-
tions of the commissioner; to authorize the commission to call into con-
sultation the professors of engineering in certain State institutions, and
appropriating money to carry the provisions of this act into effect, ap-
proved March sixth, nineteen hundred and six; to provide for the ap-
pointment of a commission, fixing their term of office; to give to said
commission the power of eminent domain, the power to make and en-
force rules and regulations governing the traffic and use of the State
highway system, not in conflict with the laws of this State, and to pre-
scribe penalties for the violation of such rules and regulations, approved
September fifth, nineteen hundred and nineteen, and to repeal all other
sections of the Code and acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act,
approved March twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2. Office of State highway commissioner abolished; pro-
vision for chief engineer and other employees.—The office of State high-
way commissioner, heretofore created, is abolished. The chairman of
the highway commission shall employ a chief engineer and such other
engineers, clerks, assistants, and other employees as may be needed, and
shall prescribe and fix their duties. They shall receive such salaries
and expenses as may be fixed by the commission, subject to the approval
of the governor. In the discretion of the chairman, such offices may
be established in the various construction districts of the State as may
be necessary or needful to carry out the provisions of this act.

Section 3. Oaths and bonds of members of commission.—The
members of the State highway commission shall each, before entering
upon the discharge of his duties, take an oath that he will faithfully and
honestly execute the duties of the office during his continuance therein,
and each shall give a bond in such penalty as may be fixed by the gover-
nor conditioned upon the faithful discharge of the duties of his office,
and the full and proper accounting for all public funds and property
coming into his possession or under his control. The premium on said
bonds shall be paid out of the State highway fund.

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 com-
prising the State highway system between the points designated in the
act establishing said system; but where the route has already been lo-
cated 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 hundred 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, how-
ever, 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 unless
and until such notice shall have been published at least once in a news-
paper published in said county or counties, or in some newspaper hay-
ing general circulation therein, not less than thirty days before the pro-
posed 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 com-
mission for a rehearing of said decision, locating and establishing any
such route and the commission shall thereupon, within a reasonable
time, hear said application and its decision on said rehearing shall be

nal.

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 also 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
amendments thereto or repeals thereof shall be printed by the com-
mission 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
following their adoption by the commission. In order properly to
enforce such rules and regulations, and additions and amendment
thereto, the commission 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. Until such rules
and regulations provided by this section are made and promulgated,
the ru'es and regulations adopted by the State highway commission,
May twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and twenty, and any additions
or amendments thereto under provisions of section four, chapter thirty-
one, acts of nineteen hundred and nineteen, shall be in force. Copies
of such rules and regulations 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, and continued in force hereby,
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 chairman of the highway commission 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 trac-
tion engines and tractors, weighing 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 Federal
aid acts. The said commission is hereby authorized to enter into all
contracts and agreements with the United States government relating
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 necessary to carry out fully
the co-operation contemplated and provided for by present or future
acts of Congress for the construction, improvement 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 now established, but said power to so add
to the system shall not be cumulative; and for the calendar years of
nineteen hundred and twenty-four, and nineteen hundred and twenty-
five, the commission shall have the power, in its discretion, to add to
the State highway system for maintenance only, road mileage not
exceeding two and one-half per centum of the total mileage of said
system, as existing at the end of the preceding year, but no part of the
mileage taken over for maintenance under the provisions hereof, shall
be constructed until the completion of the construction of the State
highway-system, as now established by law, except such of the mileage
taken over for maintenance under the provisions hereof as may be
‘added to the State highway system by the highway commission under
the provisions of the first part of this.clause or by act of the general
assembly.»

At the first meeting of the commission, after it shall have concluded
to make such additions to the State highway system, 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, and a general description of the route thereof, and the fact
that the same has been added to, and shall thereafter be a part of the
State highway system; and at the first meeting of the commission
after it shall have been concluded to make any such addition to the
State highway system for maintenance only, an order shall be entered
by the commission on its minute books, in which shall be set forth the
terminal points of such addition, the mileage embraced therein, and a
general description of the route thereof, and the fact that the same
has been added to the State highway system for maintenance. The
addition of such road to the State highway system for maintenance,
and the maintenance thereof, shall not preclude the commission from
making changes therein for maintenance or construction purposes.

To gather and tabulate information and statistics on road building,
maintenance and improvement, and to disseminate the same through-
out the State through farmers’ institutes, the Virginia good roads
association, and the bulletins of the department of agriculture, or
otherwise.

Section 7. Construction districts; allocation of funds.—The com-
mission shall divide the State into not less than eight construction

istricts.
Work in each of the construction districts shall be started as simul-
taneously as practicable, and continued in each district, except as
herein provided. The State highway commission shall annually and
as nearly as possible make an equitable apportionment among the
various construction districts, of the available construction funds; pro-
vided, however, the commission may each year apply out of the funds
available from the ten cent tax on real and personal property and the
motor vehicle fuel tax, an amount not exceeding one million dollars
to such construction projects as the commission may deem best for
the interests of the State, without regard to the apportionment among
the various construction districts. The funds for each year shall, as
far as possible, be allotted by April first of each year, and public an-
nouncement made of such allotment, but the commission shall not
approve such allotment until after a public hearing, at which political
subdivisions of the State and interested citizens may be heard.

Section 10. Eminent domain.—The chairman is hereby vested
with the power of eminent domain insofar as may be necessary for the
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 chairman may be
deemed requisite and suitable; and lands, quarries, and locations with
rights of ingress and egress, containing gravel, clay, sand, stone, rock,

timber, and any other road materials deemed useful or necessary in
carrying out the purposes aforesaid.

Proceedings for condemnation hereunder shall be instituted and
conducted in the name of ‘“‘the chairman of the highway commission
of Virginia,’ and the procedure shall, except insofar as altered hereby,
be mutatis mutandis the same as is prescribed by law for railroad cor-
porations, and the rights of all persons affected shall be subject to the
general laws of this State, insofar 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, right 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, if any,
as may be deemed necessary by the chairman, to give full information
to the court and all persons in interest, and shall be certified by oath
of the chairman or by his duly authorized agent or attorney.

Upon the return of the report of the commissioners or viewers
appointed in such proceedings the sum ascertained thereby as com-
pensation 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 Virginia in fee simple, or to such
extent as may be prayed for in the petition, and the chairman shall
have the right to enter upon such construction upon or use of the prop-
erty and rights condemned as may be authorized by said report,
provided the right of appeal from or review of said report on exception,
thereto is hereby given to the property owner, or to the chairman, to
the circuit court, on the question only of damages or compensation.

The chairman, however, without the institution of condemnation
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 shall deem himself injured thereby
and the chairman or his 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 view the said land and ascertain and report what is a just
compensation to such owner or tenant for the damage done to him
by such taking. The said freeholders, after being sworn, shall ascer-
tain such compensation and report the same to the chairman or his
duly authorized agent. The chairman may thereupon allow the full
amount so agreed upon or reported by said freeholders, or so much
thereof as to him 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.

In addition to the exercise of the power of eminent domain, as pro-
vided by the preceding part of section ten of this act, the chairman is
hereby authorized to enter upon and take possession of such rights of
way for the purposes set out in section ten of this act, as the chairman
may deem necessary, and proceed with the construction of such high-
way. Within sixty days after the completion of the construction of
such highway, if the chairman and the owner or owners, of such lands
are unable to agree as to compensation and damages, if any, caused
thereby, the said chairman shall institute condemnation proceedings
as provided by section ten of this act; and the amount of such com-
pensation and damages, if any, awarded to the owner in such proceed-
ings shall be paid out of the State highway fund, the said chairman to
pay to the landowner or into court, or to the clerk thereof, for his bene-
fit such sum as he shall estimate to be the fair value of the land taken
and damage done, before entering upon such land for construction
purposes, provided such payment shall in no wise limit the amount
to be allowed under proper proceedings. It is the intention of this
section to provide that such rights of way may, in the discretion of the
chairman, be condemned after the construction of the highway, as well
as prior thereto, and to direct the fund out of which the judgment of
the court in condemnation proceedings shall be paid, and to provide
that in all other respects the provisions of section ten of this act shall
apply, whether the rights of way are condemned before or after the
construction of the highway, but the authorities constructing such
highway under the authority of this paragraph, shall use diligence to
protect growing crops, pastures, and to prevent damage to any prop-
erty not taken. So far as possible all rights of way shall be acquired
or contracted for, before any route is definitely located.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its pas-
sage.