Chap. 172.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 7 of an act entitled “An act
create a State Highway Commission; to provide for a chairman thereof
d to prescribe the powers, duties and the compensation of the commission
d chairman; and to provide for a State Highway Commissioner; to create
ad construction districts; to provide for the apportionment among them
road construction funds, and to provide for road construction, improve-
nt, maintenance and preservation, also to repeal Sections 1962, 1963, 1964,
65, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1974 and 1975 of the Code of Virginia, and to
peal an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to
tablish a State Highway Commission; to define its powers and duties; the
‘m of office, salary and qualifications of the commissioner; to authorize the
mmission to call into consultation the professors of engineering in certain
ite institutions, and appropriating money to carry the provisions of this
t into effect, approved March 6, 1906; to provide for the appointment of
commission, and fixing their term of office; to give to said commission
> power of eminent domain, the power to make and enforce rules and
sulations governing the traffic and use of the State highwav system, not
conflict with the laws of this State, and to prescribe penalties for the
lations of such rules and regulations, approved September 5, 1919, and
repeal all other sections of the Code and acts or parts of acts inconsistent
th this act”, approved March 24, 1922, as heretofore amended, said section
relating to construction districts and the apportionment and allocation of
construction funds, and to further amend the said act by adding thereto a
new section numbered 5-a, establishing a primary system of State highways
and providing for additions to the same. [H B 53]

Approved March 17, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
seven 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 chairman; and to pro-
vide for a State Highway Commissioner; to create road construction
districts; to provide for the apportionment among them of road con-
struction funds, and to provide for road construction, improvement,
maintenance and preservation, also to repeal sections nineteen hundred
and sixty-two, nineteen hundred and sixty-three, nineteen hundred and
sixty-four, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, nineteen hundred and sixty-
six, nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, nineteen hundred and sixty-
eight, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine, nineteen hundred 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 en-
titled 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 consulta-
tion the professors of engineering in certain State institutions, and
appropriating money to carry the provisions of this act into effect,
approved March sixth, nineteen hundred and six; 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
regulations, approved September fifth, nineteen hundred and _nine-
teen, and to repeal all other sections of the Code and acts or parts of
acts inconsistent with this act”, approved March twenty-fourth, nine-
teen hundred and twenty-two, as heretofore amended, be amended
and re-enacted, and that the said act be further amended by adding
thereto a new section numbered five-a, so that the said amended sec-
tion and the said new section shall read as follows:

Section 5-a. Establishing the primary system of State highways
and providing for additions to the same.

(a) Except as the same shall be changed as hereinafter provided,
the roads and bridges now comprising the State highway system shall
constitute and be known as the primary system of State highways and
the term “State highway system” when used elsewhere in this act or
in any other existing act or statute shall refer to and mean the primary
system of State highways as herein constituted. The said system
shall be constructed and maintained by the State under the direction
and supervision of the State Highway Commission and the State
Highway Commissioner.
“(b) The State Highway Commission is authorized, in its dis-
cretion, to add to the primary system of State highways not to exceec
one hundred miles of additional highways. Each such addition tc
the primary system of State highways shall be made by an order of
the commission, Upon the making of such order, the highway desig-
nated therein shall become a part of the primary system of State
highways. The authority heretofore vested in the commission to add
to the State highway system each year road mileage not exceeding twc
and one-half per centum of the total mileage of the said system as
established July first, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, shall here-
after not be exercised by the said commission.

Section 7. Construction districts; allocation of funds.—The com-
mission shall divide the State into not less than eight construction
districts. Work in each of the construction districts shall be started
as simultaneously as practicable, and continued in each district, ex-
cept as herein provided. The State Highway Commission shall an-
nually, and as nearly as possible, make an equitable apportionment
among the various construction districts, of the construction funds to
become available during the succeeding fiscal year; provided, however,
the commission shall each year, apply out of the funds from the
motor fuel tax, Federal or other construction funds, two million dollars,
to such construction project in the several construction districts as the
commission may deem best for the interests of the State, such amount to
be applied in the several construction districts on the basis of the uncom-
pleted mileage in the primary system of the State highways in the re-
spective districts. The funds for each year shall, as far as possible, be
allotted prior to the commencement of the fiscal year, and public
announcement made of such allotment, but the commission shall not
approve such allotment until after public hearing, at which political
subdivisions of the State and interested citizens may be heard, and,
further, the commission shall give preference to projects on which
the right of way is donated. Provided, however, nothing herein shall
apply to allocations of highway funds made prior to the passage of
this act.