2023 Tennessee Code › Title 54 - HIGHWAYS, BRIDGES AND FERRIES (§§ 54-1-101 — 54-22-105) › Chapter 5 - STATE HIGHWAYS (§§ 54-5-101 — 54-5-1402) › Part 8 - RELOCATION OF UTILITIES (§§ 54-5-801 — 54-5-856) › Section 54-5-801 - Declaration of policy

(a)
The construction of modern highways is necessary to promote public safety, facilitate the movement of present day motor traffic, both interstate and intrastate in character, and to promote the national defense, and in the construction of the highways it is also in the public interest to provide for the orderly and economical relocation of utilities when made necessary by highway improvements, including extensions of highways within urban areas, without occasioning utility service interruptions or unnecessary hazards to the health, safety and welfare of the traveling or utility consuming public.
(b)
Utilities have been authorized by statute or charter provisions for many years to locate their facilities within the boundaries of public roads and streets in this state, because utilities are vital to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of this state, and further:
(1)
The business and activities of utilities involve the rendition of essential public services to large numbers of the general public, and no cessation of utility service is permitted without authority of law;
(2)
The financing of utilities involves the investment of large sums of money, obtained from municipal funds and subscribing members of the general public;
(3)
The development and extension of utilities directly and vitally affect the development, growth and expansion of the general welfare, business and industry of this state; and
(4)
All persons in this state are actual or potential consumers of one (1) or more utility services, and all consumers will be affected by the cost of relocation of their utilities as necessary to accommodate highway improvements.
(c)
Public highways and streets are intended principally for public travel and transportation; but they are also intended for proper utility uses in serving the public, as authorized by charter provisions or other applicable laws of this state, and the utility uses are for the benefit of the public served. Without making use of public ways, utility lines could not reach or economically service the adjacent public, particularly in urban areas.
(d)
Federal aid highways of the interstate system, including extensions of the highways in urban areas, serve the need of nonlocal and long distance traffic.
(e)
The municipality that owns and operates its own utilities is a political subdivision of the state and lawfully holds all of its utility properties, real and personal, and other facilities in a proprietary capacity, and owns or has a real property interest in the streets, easements and other public ways in, under, and over which the utility facilities are installed.
(f)
The obligation of the utility relocations is a burden on the public in this state, whether initially borne by the state or the municipally or cooperatively owned utility or in part by both, and it is, therefore, in the public interest that the burden be minimized to the extent that same can be done consistently with the principal purpose of the streets and highways for vehicular movement of persons and property; therefore, it is the intent of the general assembly to ensure that the state's police power in requiring relocation of utilities shall be exercised in a reasonable manner.
(g)
Utility relocations necessitated by construction of the interstate highway system, extensions of the highway system, or improvements to the highway system are a public governmental function, properly a part of the construction, and, to the extent in this part provided, utility relocations shall be made at state expense; however, although made in obedience to the commissioner's orders in exercise of the police power under this part, relocations under this part for which compensation is not provided by this part or otherwise by law are declared to be damnum absque injuria and no claim therefor shall be enforceable against the state. Utility relocations to which this part are applicable shall be made only in pursuance of this part.
(h)
The statements in this section are legislative determinations and declarations of public policy, and this part shall be liberally construed in conformity with its declarations and purposes to promote the public interest.
Impl. am. Acts 1959, ch. 9, § 3; Acts 1963, ch. 368, § 1; impl. am. Acts 1972, ch. 829, § 7; T.C.A., § 54-562.