Administrative Rules of Montana › Department 18 - TRANSPORTATION › Chapter 18.7 - MAINTENANCE › Subchapter 18.7.2 - Right-of-Way Occupancy by Utilities › Rule 18.7.202 - DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. 13, July 5, 2024
(1) "Clear recovery area" means that portion
				of the highway right-of-way as established by the department. Unless otherwise
				provided, the distance for this area shall be 30 feet from the outer edge of
				the outside travel lane on paved sections or 42 feet from the centerline of the
				road on unpaved sections, or "clear zone" as defined by the 2011 edition of the
				AASHTO publication "Roadside Design Guide," whichever is greater. Copies of
				AASHTO publications are available for inspection and copying at the
				department's offices in Helena. Copies of current AASHTO publications are
				available for purchase at
https://bookstore.transportation.org/
.
(2) "Department" means the state of Montana
				Department of Transportation and its authorized agents and
				representatives.
(3) "District"
				means the specific geographic area of the state designated by the Department of
				Transportation as a district. There are five district headquarters, which are
				currently located in Missoula, Butte, Great Falls, Billings, and
				Glendive.
(4) "District
				administrator" means the administrative head of each district or the designee
				of the district engineer.
(5)
				"Engineering costs" means costs for designing, locating, staking, inspecting,
				or any other incidental costs of engineering.
(6) "Facility" means all pipes, mains, conduits, cables, wires,
				towers, poles, and other equipment, structures, and appliances built or
				installed by any utility or non-utility for the purpose of transporting,
				transmitting, furnishing, and/or distributing hydro-carbons and the products
				thereof, electric power and energy, communication signals, water, and
				sewage.
(7) "Full controlled-access
				facility" means those portions of an interstate highway, throughway, or
				throughway intersection which the Highway Commission designates for through
				traffic or other federal-aid or state highways over, from, or to which the
				owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons have no easement of
				access, light, air, or view. It also means those portions of spurs of the
				interstate system which the Highway Commission designates as unsafe or impeded
				by unrestricted access of traffic from intersecting streets or alleys or public
				or private roads or ways of passage.
(8) "Highway" means a commission-designated highway system or
				state highway.
(9) "Highway
				right-of-way" means the land owned or controlled by the State of Montana
				Department of Transportation which is designated as highway
				right-of-way.
(10) "Highway
				structure" means any structure located on a highway that is under the
				jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation and constructed for the
				purpose of carrying vehicular, rail, or pedestrian traffic over a depression,
				stream, obstacle, roadway, walkway, or railroad.
(11) "Occupancy agreement," "common use
				agreement," "utility encroachment permit," or utility occupancy agreement
				permits mean the documents the owner must secure from the department, prior to
				occupancy, showing the conditions of occupancy of highway right-of-way, whether
				such occupancy is overhead, underground, or on the surface.
(12) "Public utility" means:
(a) all public utilities as defined by
				69-3-101,
				MCA, but including publicly owned water and sanitary sewer
				facilities;
(b) all common carrier
				pipelines as defined by
				69-13-101,
				MCA; and
(c) all rural cooperative,
				non-profit membership corporations organized under the Rural Electric and
				Telephone Cooperative Act, as set forth in
				35-18-101
				through
				35-18-503,
				MCA.