Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/365

 the capabilities of the State highway departments in right-of-way acquisition matters, required that each State highway department submit a formal statement covering its right-of-way organization, policies, and procedures. The statement was required to be updated and revised as changes occurred.

By accepting the State’s procedures, Public Roads assumed the responsibility to assure that each State would conduct its operations in accordance with its formal statement and that the State’s personnel were competent and reliable. FHWA continues to review State property acquisitions to assure conformance with Federal rules and regulations governing reimbursements for expenditures made by the State.

With minor exceptions, such as negotiations for lands from national parks and forests and other Federal areas, FHWA does not acquire lands or interest in lands for the construction of Federal-aid highways except in connection with the Interstate System, and then only when it has been determined that the State is either unable to acquire the necessary lands or interests in lands or is unable to acquire them with sufficient promptness. For example, from 1956 until about 1962, Iowa, Idaho and several other States did not have the legal authority to acquire property for right-of-way until a court hearing had been held to determine final payment. Until final payment had been made to the property owner, construction could not proceed. This provision in the State laws delayed Interstate construction several months at the very least and sometimes caused a delay until the next construction season. In cases of this nature, the Bureau of Public Roads acquired the property to permit timely construction schedules.

In the early years of highway construction, right-of-way was acquired by donation or by “horse trading” practices with little thought to a value appraisal of the lands to be acquired. Later, appraisals were used, but there were often a simple opinion of value without written support.

Under such circumstances, the property owner was to a degree dependent on the whims of the appraiser, whose personal opinions could too easily affect the amount of his estimate. Since these value opinions usually were prepared by local men familiar with land values in the general area, they usually were surprisingly accurate. However, such unsupported opinions of value could not be accepted for Federal participation and more sophisticated procedures were required.

Close coordination between design and right-of-way blends this section of I-90 on the Mississippi River in Minnesota—with its buildings, terraces, plantings and parking areas—compatibly with its surroundings. 359