28-7092. Land acquisition; transportation purposes

A. In the name of this state, the director may acquire, either in fee or a lesser estate or interest, real property that the director considers necessary for transportation purposes by purchase, donation, dedication, exchange, condemnation or other lawful means with monies from the state highway fund or any other monies appropriated to the department.

B. Property acquired for transportation purposes includes land or any interest in the land necessary for:

1. Rights-of-way, campsites, roadside rest areas, water or material needed in the construction, improvement or maintenance of state highways, airports, runways, taxiways or other property under the jurisdiction, possession or control of the department.

2. Spoil banks, rock quarries, gravel pits, sand or earth borrow pits.

3. Rights-of-way to the place where material required in the construction, improvement or maintenance of state highways, airports, runways or taxiways may be located.

4. Offices, shops, maintenance camps, storage yards, inspection or weighing stations or radio transmitter or repeater stations.

5. Rights-of-way for access to any location prescribed in this subsection.

6. Relocation of existing utility or irrigation facilities and rights-of-way that are required to be relocated to facilitate a transportation purpose.

7. Legal access to property acquired by the director through adjacent property.

8. Environmental mitigation or banking credits, if necessary to satisfy the requirements of federal or state environmental laws or regulations or requirements to obtain a permit, grant or right to use property from a federal or state agency. For the purposes of this paragraph:

(a) " Banking credits" means payment in lieu of costs of acquisition, preservation or maintenance of habitat or other environmentally protected locations.

(b) " Environmental mitigation" means replacement of habitat or other environmentally protected locations that are taken for or affected by a transportation facility.

9. Private legal access to property when the access has been severed as a result of a taking for transportation purposes.

C. If part of a parcel of land is to be taken for transportation purposes and the remainder is to be left in such shape or condition as to be of little value to its owner or to give rise to claims or litigation concerning severance or other damage, the director may acquire the whole parcel by any means provided in subsection A of this section, and the remainder may be sold, exchanged for other property needed for transportation purposes or used for rights-of-way for relocated utility or irrigation facilities.