Chap. 162.—-An ACT to amend and re-enact section 5 of chapter 403 of the
Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, approved March 24, 1922, as
amended by an act approved March 21, 1924, in relation to the State Highway
Commission and the State highway system. {S B 29]

Approved March 17, 1926.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion five of chapter four hundred and three of the acts of the general
assembly of Virginia, approved March twenty-fourth, nineteen hun-
dred and twenty-two, as amended by an act approved March twenty-
first, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, in relation to the State high-
way commission and the State highway system, be further 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
following 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
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 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 commis-
sion, 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 establishing
any such route, and the commission shall thereupon, within a reas-
onable time, hear said application and its decision on said rehearing
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 trafhc
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 ad-
ditions 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 per-
son 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 commission and two copies thereof mailed forthwith to the
clerk of every court of record, one of which copies shall be posted im-
mediately upon receipt by the clerk, at the front door of his court-
house, and the other copy retained in his office for the information
of the public, but no such rules and regulations or additions, or amend-
ments 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 amendments thereto, the commission is given the power to desig-
nate 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 pro-
mulgated, the rules 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 high-
way commission, whether of those adopted under provisions of sec-
tion 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 traction engines and tractors, weigh-
ing 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 and 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 enact-
ment, to submit such scheme or program for construction or main-
tenance as may be required by the secretary of agriculture, or other-
wise 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 commis-
sion 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 the said system, as now established, but said
power so to add to the system shall not be cumulative; and for the
calendar years nineteen hundred and twenty-six and nineteen hundred
and twenty-seven, the commission shall have the power, in its dis-
cretion, to add to the State highway system an additional road mile-
age not exceeding two per centum of the total mileage of the said
system, as existing at the end of the preceding year, provided such
mileage is first conditioned by the counties.

At the first meeting of the commission, after it shall have con-
cluded 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 em-
braced 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. The addition of such road to the State
highway system and the maintenance thereof, shall not preclude the
commission from making changes therein for maintenance or construc-
tion purposes, and provided further that the mileage heretofore added
for maintenance under section five of an act approved March twenty-
first, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, chapter four hundred and
forty-eight, for the years nineteen hundred and twenty-four and nine-
teen hundred and twenty-five, is hereby made eligible to receive
both construction and maintenance funds and made a part of the State
highway system.

To gather and tabulate information and statistics on road build-
ing, maintenance and improvements, and to disseminate the same
throughout the State through farmers’ institutes, the Virginia good
roads association, and the bulletins of the department of agriculture,
or otherwise, and further to authorize and empower the commission
to erect historical and other signs along the State highway and to pay
for the same out of the funds set aside for the construction of roads in
the State highway svstem.