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practicable for petitioner to purchase the property that its
pipeline must traverse, petitioner often will purchase an
easement, or right-of-way, granting it the right to locate its
pipeline on particular parcels of private or public property. In
some instances, however, petitioner is unable to purchase a
right-of-way because that right previously has been conveyed to
another easement holder, such as when the State holds the right-
of-way in property that borders a highway. Under such
circumstances, petitioner may acquire a permit which allows it to
locate its pipeline within the existing right-of-way. As a
matter of contract, however, such a permit often provides that if
petitioner's pipeline ever interferes with the right-of-way
holder's future use of the right-of-way, petitioner is
responsible for the cost of relocating the pipeline in order to
cure any such interference. This method of securing a location
for the placement of pipeline represents a common, ordinary, and
necessary practice throughout the pipeline industry.
At some point prior to 1991, petitioner entered into a
contractual agreement with the Illinois Department of Public
Works and Buildings, Division of Highways, predecessor to
Illinois Department of Transportation (both hereinafter referred
to as IDOT), whereby petitioner secured a permit to locate its
pipeline within an IDOT right-of-way that bordered certain
Illinois highways. Pursuant to that permit, petitioner was and
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