Controlled Access Facilities

Miss. Code Ann. tit. 65, ch. 5
in effect

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-1 Declaration of policy.

The legislature hereby finds, determines, and declares that this chapter is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, and for the promotion of the general welfare.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-3 Definitions.

For the purpose of this chapter, the following words and phrases as used herein, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings: “Controlled-access facility”–A highway or street especially designed for through traffic, and over, from, or to which owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons have no right or easement, or only a controlled right or easement, of access, light, air, or view by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon such controlled-access facility or for any other reason. Such highways or streets may be expressways or freeways open to use by all customary forms of street and highway traffic, or they may be parkways from which trucks, busses, and other commercial vehicles shall be excluded. “Expressway”–A divided arterial highway for through traffic with full or partial control of access and generally with grade separations at intersections. “Freeway”–An expressway with full control of access. “Grade separation”–A crossing of two highways, or a highway and railroad, at different levels. “Interchange”–A grade separated intersection with one or more turning roadways for travel between the intersecting highways, roads, or streets. “Parkway”–An arterial highway for non-commercial traffic, with full or partial control of access. “Service road” or “local service road”–A highway, road, or street which is auxiliary to and located on the side of another highway, road, or street for service to abutting property and adjacent areas and for control of access to such other highway, road, or street.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-5 Authority to establish.

The highway authorities of the state, counties, cities, towns, and villages, acting alone or in cooperation with each other or with any federal, state, or local agency or any other state having authority to participate in the construction and maintenance of highways, are hereby authorized to plan, designate, establish, regulate, vacate, alter, improve, maintain, and provide controlled-access facilities for public use wherever such authority or authorities are of the opinion that traffic conditions, present or future, will justify such special facilities; however, within cities and villages such authority shall be subject to such municipal consent as may be provided by law. Such highway authorities of the state, counties, cities, villages, and towns, in addition to the specific powers granted in this chapter, shall also have and may exercise, relative to controlled-access facilities, any and all additional authority now or hereafter vested in them relative to highways or streets within their respective jurisdictions. Said units may regulate, restrict, or prohibit the use of such controlled-access facilities by the various classes of vehicles or traffic in a manner consistent with Section 65-5-3. No existing public street or highway shall be converted into a controlled-access facility except with the consent of the owners of lands abutting said freeway or with the purchase or condemnation of the access rights of said abutting land owners. Nothing herein shall be construed as requiring the consent of the owners of the abutting lands where a street or highway is constructed, established, or located for the first time as a new way for the use of vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-7 Design.

The highway authorities of the state, county, city, town, and village are authorized to so design any controlled-access facility and to so regulate, restrict, or prohibit access as to best serve the traffic for which such facility is intended. In this connection such highway authorities are authorized to divide and separate any controlled-access facility into separate roadways by the construction of raised curbings, central dividing sections, or other physical separations, or by designating such separate roadways by signs, markers, stripes, and the proper lane for such traffic by appropriate signs, markers, stripes, and other devices. No person shall have any right of ingress or egress to, from, or across controlled-access facilities to or from abutting lands except at such designated points at which access may be permitted, upon such terms and conditions as may be specified from time to time.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-9 Acquisition of property and property rights.

For the purposes of this chapter, the highway authorities of the state, county, city, town, or village may acquire private or public property and property rights for controlled-access facilities and service roads, including rights of access, air, view, and light, by gift, devise, purchase, or condemnation in the same manner as such units are now or hereafter may be authorized by law to acquire such property or property rights in connection with highways and streets within their respective jurisdictions. All property rights acquired under the provisions of this chapter shall be acquired in accordance with the provisions of Section 65-1-47, and the estate acquired shall be specified in accordance with said section. In connection with acquisition of property or property rights for any controlled-access facility or portion thereof or service road in connection therewith, the state, county, city, town, or village highway authority may, in its discretion, acquire an entire lot, block, or tract of land if, by so doing, the interests of the public will be best served, even though said entire lot, block, or tract is not needed for the right of way proper.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-11 Preference of condemnation cases.

Court proceedings necessary to acquire property or property rights for purposes of this chapter shall take precedence over all other causes not involving the public interest in all courts, to the end that the provisions of controlled-access facilities may be expedited.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-13 Grade-crossing eliminations.

The highway authority of the state, county, city, town, or village may designate and establish controlled-access highways as new and additional facilities or may designate and establish an existing street or highway as included within a controlled-access facility. The state or any of its subdivisions shall have authority to provide for the elimination of intersections at grade of controlled-access facilities with existing state and county roads and city, town, or village streets by grade separation or service road, or by closing off such roads and streets at the right of way boundary line of such controlled-access facility; and after the establishment of any controlled-access facility, no highway or street which is not part of said facility shall intersect the same at grade unless it be an approved interchange. No city, town, or village street, county or state highway, or other public way shall be opened into or connected with any such controlled-access facility without the consent and previous approval of the highway authority in the state, county, city, town, or village having jurisdiction over such controlled-access facility. Such consent and approval shall be given only if the public interest shall be served thereby.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-15 Authority of local units to consent.

The highway authorities of the state, city, county, town, or village are authorized to enter into agreements with each other, or with the federal government, respecting the financing, planning, establishment, improvement, maintenance, use, regulation, or vacation of controlled-access facilities or other public ways in their respective jurisdictions, to facilitate the purposes of this chapter.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-17 Local service roads.

In connection with the development of any controlled-access facility, the state, county, city, town, or village highway authorities are authorized to plan, designate, establish, use, regulate, alter, improve, maintain, and vacate local service roads and streets or to designate as local service roads and streets any existing road or street, and to exercise jurisdiction over service roads in the same manner as is authorized over controlled-access facilities under the terms of this chapter if, in their opinion, such local service roads and streets are necessary or desirable. Such local service roads or streets shall be of appropriate design, and shall be separated from the controlled-access facility proper by means of all devices designated as necessary or desirable by the proper authority.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-19 Penalties for unlawful use.

It is unlawful for any person (1) to drive a vehicle over, upon, or across any curb, central dividing section, or other separation or dividing line on controlled-access facilities; (2) to make a left turn or a semicircular or U-turn except through an opening provided for that purpose in the dividing curb section, separation, or line; (3) to drive any vehicle except in the proper lane provided for the purpose and in the proper direction and to the right of the central dividing curb, separation section, or line; (4) to drive any vehicle into the controlled-access facility from a local service road except through an opening provided for that purpose in the dividing curb or dividing section or dividing line which separates such service road from the controlled-access facility proper. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon arrest and conviction therefor, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars ($5.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100.00), or by imprisonment in the city or county jail for not less than five days nor more than ninety days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-21 Automotive service stations prohibited within right of way.

No automotive service station or other commercial enterprise for serving motor vehicle users shall be constructed or located within the right of way of, or on publicly-owned or publicly-leased land acquired or used for or in connection with, a limited access facility or a controlled-access facility.

Miss. Code Ann. § 65-5-23 Legislative intent.

It is the intent of the legislature that this chapter provide additional and supplemental means of designating, establishing, altering, improving, and maintaining controlled-access facilities, and it is not intended to repeal nor in any way change any other provision of statute authorizing the establishment, control, and maintenance of limited access facilities, but is supplemental thereto.

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