The motorist’s viewpoint was one of the design factors in the planning and construction of Junipero Serra Freeway in San Bruno, California. A long range landscaping program was carefully planned for the entire route. Trees within the right-of-way were either preserved or transplanted.
Replacement housing payments to owners averaged, nationally, $4,755 and to tenants $1,137. The moving cost payments and replacement housing payments were supplementary to the payments made for the property taken under the “fair market value” concept and represent the expanding concept of preventing, to the extent possible, hardships upon the individuals who are relocated because of the construction of a highway.
Location
A phase of highway construction which is closely related to right-of-way is highway location. During the early years of highway development, the emphasis was almost exclusively on the engineering features of such location. Unless the highway was solely a land service facility, the highway agency attempted to find the most direct lines between the points that they wanted to serve and to develop the most economical way, in engineering terms, of building adequate roads along these direct lines. They sought easy grades, the shortest possible river crossings, and generally adopted the lowest priced adequate solution that could be found. This resulted in many hardships to the property owners for, too often, little consideration was given to their needs and the needs of the community as a whole. A trial attorney once remarked that it appeared to him that the engineers’ procedure was first to find a farmer’s water supply and then make that the centerline of the highway. While this judgment is harsh, it is clear all too often that a little consideration of right-of-way costs and damages at the location stage could have materially lowered the cost of right-of-way and of the total highway project.
It has been understood that right-of-way personnel should not determine the location of a highway. That has always been an engineering determination. However, the engineer should have input from the right-of-way man as to property costs and damages to assist him in making his engineering determination. As an example of this, a highway preliminary location ran through the middle of an airstrip. The right-of-way man estimated damages at nearly $400,000. A restudy was made, and a slight realinement resulted in taking only a portion off one end of the airstrip. The damages were reduced to well under $100,000. In addition, construction costs on the new location were several thousand dollars less than they would have been on the original location.
Another situation involved a very minor acquisition from an iceplant which would have resulted in a major claim for damages because of having to relocate and rearrange the freezing apparatus. A restudy resulted in a slight relocation that avoided taking any portion of the iceplant.
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