Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-1302 — NE Code / Chapter 39 / Section 39-1302
View Statute 39-1302
Status: in_force

For purposes of sections 39-1301 to 39-1393 , unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Abandon means to reject all or part of the department's rights and responsibilities relating to all or part of a fragment, section, or route on the state highway system;

(2) Alley means an established passageway for vehicles and pedestrians affording a secondary means of access in the rear to properties abutting on a street or highway;

(3) Approach or exit road means any highway or ramp designed and used solely for the purpose of providing ingress or egress to or from an interchange or rest area of a highway. An approach road shall begin at the point where it intersects with any highway not a part of the highway for which such approach road provides access and shall terminate at the point where it merges with an acceleration lane of a highway. An exit road shall begin at the point where it intersects with a deceleration lane of a highway and shall terminate at the point where it intersects any highway not a part of a highway from which the exit road provides egress;

(4) Arterial highway means a highway primarily for through traffic, usually on a continuous route;

(5) Beltway means the roads and streets not designated as a part of the state highway system and that are under the primary authority of a county or municipality, if the location of the beltway has been approved by (a) record of decision or finding of no significant impact and (b) the applicable local planning authority as a part of the comprehensive plan;

(6) Business means any lawful activity conducted primarily for the purchase and resale, manufacture, processing, or marketing of products, commodities, or other personal property or for the sale of services to the public or by a nonprofit corporation;

(7) Channel means a natural or artificial watercourse;

(8) Commercial activity means those activities generally recognized as commercial by zoning authorities in this state, and industrial activity means those activities generally recognized as industrial by zoning authorities in this state, except that none of the following shall be considered commercial or industrial:

(a) Outdoor advertising structures;

(b) General agricultural, forestry, ranching, grazing, farming, and related activities, including wayside fresh produce stands;

(c) Activities normally or regularly in operation less than three months of the year;

(d) Activities conducted in a building principally used as a residence;

(e) Railroad tracks and minor sidings; and

(f) Activities more than six hundred sixty feet from the nearest edge of the right-of-way of the road or highway;

(9) Connecting link means the roads, streets, and highways designated as part of the state highway system and which are within the corporate limits of any city or village in this state;

(10) Controlled-access facility means 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 freeways, or they may be parkways;

(11) Department means the Department of Transportation;

(12) Displaced person means any individual, family, business, or farm operation which moves from real property acquired for state highway purposes or for a federal-aid highway;

(13) Easement means a right acquired by public authority to use or control property for a designated highway purpose;

(14) Expressway means a divided arterial highway for through traffic with full or partial control of access which may have grade separations at intersections;

(15) Extreme weather event means a weather event that generates extraordinary costs related to such event for construction, reconstruction, relocation, improvement, or maintenance occurring on or after January 1, 2023, resulting from weather conditions including, but not limited to, snow, rain, drought, flood, storm, extreme heat, or extreme cold;

(16) Family means two or more persons living together in the same dwelling unit who are related to each other by blood, marriage, adoption, or legal guardianship;

(17) Farm operation means any activity conducted primarily for the production of one or more agricultural products or commodities for sale and home use and customarily producing such products or commodities in sufficient quantity to be capable of contributing materially to the operator's support;

(18) Faulty engineering means a defect in the design of, construction of, workmanship on, or the materials or systems used on a project that results in failure of a component part or the structural integrity of a structure and that such failure causes damage;

(19) Federal-aid primary roads means roads, streets, and highways, whether a part of the state highway system, county road systems, or city streets, which have been designated as federal-aid primary roads by the Nebraska Department of Transportation and approved by the United States Secretary of Transportation and shown on the maps provided for in section 39-1311 ;

(20) Freeway means an expressway with full control of access;

(21) Frontage road means a local street or road auxiliary to an arterial highway for service to abutting property and adjacent areas and for control of access;

(22) Full control of access means that the right of owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons to access or view is fully controlled by public authority having jurisdiction and that such control is exercised to give preference to through traffic by providing access connections with selected public roads only and by prohibiting crossings or intersections at grade or direct private driveway connections;

(23) Grade separation means a crossing of two highways at different levels;

(24) Highway means a road or street, including the entire area within the right-of-way, which has been designated a part of the state highway system;

(25) Highway approach means the portion of a county road located within the right-of-way of a highway;

(26) Individual means a person who is not a member of a family;

(27) Interchange means a grade-separated intersection with one or more turning roadways for travel between any of the highways radiating from and forming part of such intersection;

(28) Map means a drawing or other illustration or a series of drawings or illustrations which may be considered together to complete a representation;

(29) Mileage means the aggregate distance in miles without counting double mileage where there are one-way or divided roads, streets, or highways;

(30) Parking lane means an auxiliary lane primarily for the parking of vehicles;

(31) Parkway means an arterial highway for noncommercial traffic, with full or partial control of access, and usually located within a park or a ribbon of park-like development;

(32) Relinquish means to surrender all or part of the rights and responsibilities relating to all or part of a fragment, section, or route on the state highway system to a political or governmental subdivision or public corporation of Nebraska;

(33) Right of access means the rights of ingress and egress to or from a road, street, or highway and the rights of owners or occupants of land abutting a road, street, or highway or other persons to a way or means of approach, light, air, or view;

(34) Right-of-way means land, property, or interest therein, usually in a strip, acquired for or devoted to a road, street, or highway;

(35) Road means a public way for the purposes of vehicular travel, including the entire area within the right-of-way. A road designated as part of the state highway system may be called a highway, while a road in an urban area may be called a street;

(36) Roadside means the area adjoining the outer edge of the roadway. Extensive areas between the roadways of a divided highway may also be considered roadside;

(37) Roadway means the portion of a highway, including shoulders, for vehicular use;

(38) Separation structure means that part of any bridge or road which is directly overhead of the roadway of any part of a highway;

(39) State highway purposes has the same meaning set forth in subsection (2) of section 39-1320 ;

(40) State highway system means the roads, streets, and highways shown on the map provided for in section 39-1311 as forming a group of highway transportation lines for which the Nebraska Department of Transportation shall be the primary authority. The state highway system shall include, but not be limited to, rights-of-way, connecting links, drainage facilities, and the bridges, appurtenances, easements, and structures used in conjunction with such roads, streets, and highways;

(41) Street means a public way for the purposes of vehicular travel in a city or village and shall include the entire area within the right-of-way;

(42) Structure means anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having a permanent location;

(43) Title means the evidence of a person's right to property or the right itself;

(44) Traveled way means the portion of the roadway for the movement of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders and auxiliary lanes;

(45) Unzoned commercial or industrial area for purposes of control of outdoor advertising means all areas within six hundred sixty feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of the interstate and federal-aid primary systems which are not zoned by state or local law, regulation, or ordinance and on which there is located one or more permanent structures devoted to a business or industrial activity or on which a commercial or industrial activity is conducted, whether or not a permanent structure is located thereon, the area between such activity and the highway, and the area along the highway extending outward six hundred feet from and beyond each edge of such activity and, in the case of the primary system, may include the unzoned lands on both sides of such road or highway to the extent of the same dimensions if those lands on the opposite side of the highway are not deemed scenic or having aesthetic value as determined by the department. In determining such an area, measurements shall be made from the furthest or outermost edges of the regularly used area of the commercial or industrial activity, structures, normal points of ingress and egress, parking lots, and storage and processing areas constituting an integral part of such commercial or industrial activity;

(46) Visible, for purposes of section 39-1320 , in reference to advertising signs, displays, or devices, means the message or advertising content of such sign, display, or device is capable of being seen without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity. A sign shall be considered visible even though the message or advertising content may be seen but not read;

(47) Written instrument means a deed or any other document that states a contract, agreement, gift, or transfer of property; and

(48) Zoned commercial or industrial areas means those areas within six hundred sixty feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of the Highway Beautification Control System defined in section 39-201.01 , zoned by state or local zoning authorities for industrial or commercial activities.

Laws 1955, c. 148, § 2, p. 415;

Laws 1969, c. 329, § 1, p. 1174;

Laws 1972, LB 1181, § 1;

Laws 1975, LB 213, § 4;

Laws 1983, LB 120, § 2;

Laws 1993, LB 15, § 4;

Laws 1993, LB 121, § 211;

Laws 1993, LB 370, § 39;

Laws 1995, LB 264, § 21;

Laws 2005, LB 639, § 1;

Laws 2016, LB1038, § 8;

Laws 2017, LB271, § 4;

Laws 2017, LB339, § 121;

Laws 2022, LB750, § 2;

Laws 2025, LB36, § 29.

Legislature gave to the Department of Roads complete administration of the state highway system. Vap v. City of McCook, 178 Neb. 844, 136 N.W.2d 220 (1965).

Legislature gave to the Department of Roads complete administration of the state highway system. Vap v. City of McCook, 178 Neb. 844, 136 N.W.2d 220 (1965).

Term highway was not used in the sense of highway designated as a part of the state highway system. School Dist. No. 228 v. State Board of Education, 164 Neb. 148, 82 N.W.2d 8 (1957).

Term highway was not used in the sense of highway designated as a part of the state highway system. School Dist. No. 228 v. State Board of Education, 164 Neb. 148, 82 N.W.2d 8 (1957).