Code of Alabama - Title 23: Highways, Roads, Bridges and Ferries - Section 23-1-113 - Maintenance and repair - Stipulations and conditions

Section 23-1-113 - Maintenance and repair - Stipulations and conditions.

The following stipulations and conditions shall obtain as to state maintenance of municipal connecting link roads:

(1) State maintenance of a city or town street traversed by a state maintained highway route shall not extend beyond the back of the curb where a curb and gutter section exists and not beyond the back or roadway ditch or the toe of fill slope where no curb and gutter is in place except as necessary in the placing and maintaining of highway markers, etc.

(2) The city or town shall prepare a drawing, from which prints can be made, showing width of right-of-way of street traversed by a highway route maintained by the state and it shall indicate thereon the width of right-of-way on intersecting streets for a distance of 200 feet each way from the center of the highway.

(3) City or town to perform routine clean-up operations such as removal of leaves, trash, soil from gutters, soil from drop inlets and catch basins, etc., and shall be responsible for the trimming and maintenance of all trees and shrubbery within the right-of-way of the street or that affects traffic using the highway.

(4) The state will place and maintain center stripes and lane stripes. The city or town will mark parking spaces, bus stop areas, and other markings outside the travel lanes.

(5) The city or town will be responsible for all drainage that enters the city's or town's storm sewer system, including all catch basins, sand traps, drop inlets, and such. The state shall perform normal routine maintenance on roadway drainage structures not a part of the city or town storm sewer system, but the state shall assume no responsibility for a general drainage problem. In the correction of a drainage problem where the roadway structure is affected, the state will assume its fair share of the cost of any correction of opening needed in the roadway structure.

(6) Traffic control on a city or town street maintained in part by the state shall be under the joint control of the city and the state.

(7) The establishing of speed zones and the placing of traffic lights shall be subject to joint approval of the city or town and the state officials. After city or town and state representatives have decided on the speed to apply and the extent of speed zones, they shall be set out in city or town ordinances and the state will furnish, erect, and maintain speed zone markers. After city or town and state representatives have agreed on the need for a traffic light and the type of light has been agreed on, the city will furnish, erect, and maintain the light. The time interval of the light shall favor traffic along the highway route or traffic along the intersecting city or town street according to relative volume and importance, and when necessary or desirable, the point shall be settled by the taking of a traffic count. Should the city or town or the state question the need for an existing or proposed speed zone or traffic light, the question shall be settled in conference as provided.

(8) The city or town shall have authority to make any repairs to city or town facilities underground or overhead without asking permission of the state, but they shall notify the state immediately should that work affect the free flow of traffic. The city or town shall repair, in a manner satisfactory to the state, any pavement disturbed in any work they do. Any addition to city or town facilities, where the work of installation and maintenance would affect that part of the city street maintained by the state, shall be planned after conference with state officials, and the details of the plans shall be worked out in that conference. Any work that affects that part of a city street maintained by the state and to be performed by other than city forces shall be done only after a permit has been issued by the state. Such permits shall be subject to approval by the city or town.

(9) No permit shall be issued by the city or town or the state for any advertising sign to be suspended over the street and highway. The city or town shall have the right to permit the placing of any sign or marker, with or without written permit, so long as the sign does not interfere with highway markers or other traffic-control devices and provided they do not overhang the curb, in a curb and gutter section, or the shoulder line of the roadway where no curb and gutter exists. The only exceptions shall be signs to be erected by the city or town or civic organizations, with the approval of the city or town, that are temporary in nature and are intended to give information to the general public. In such cases, a formal permit, approved by both the state and the city, shall be issued for erection by other than city or town forces or forces employed by the city or town, and those signs shall not interfere with traffic or confuse or obscure traffic-control devices or markings.

(10) Where maintenance operations require it or make it desirable, the city or town police will provide protection for state forces and equipment and will cooperate in the handling of traffic should it be necessary to close all or part of the highway route.

(11) The state shall have no responsibility for the maintenance of "truck routes" where such routes are separate from regularly established highway routes.

(Acts 1949, No. 284, p. 408, §4.)

Last modified: May 3, 2021