Opinion ID: 1632489
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Design and Maintenance of Highway 37 Relating to the Accident

Text: Mr. James Clary, Sr. (Mr. Clary), a retired civil engineer licensed in Mississippi, testified on behalf of plaintiff at trial as an expert in highway design, highway safety and highway maintenance. In formulating his opinions, Mr. Clary indicated that he had reviewed the depositions of the parties and witnesses; made a survey of the accident site; personally measured and walked the area and reviewed the police reports, photographs, and DOTD plans and documents relating to the pertinent roadway. Mr. Clary testified that after his review of these materials, he concluded that Highway 37 had a defect at the accident site which created an unreasonable risk of harm to motorists. Specifically, Mr. Clary stated that the roadway's safety features of a 3:1 shoulder slope and clear right-of-way constructed in 1951 had been allowed to deteriorate as a result of DOTD's failure to maintain the area. Further, Mr. Clary characterized DOTD's work project on that area of Highway 37 in 1975 as a reconstruction project. As such, Mr. Clary claimed that DOTD had failed to comply with statutorily required design standards consistent with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official' (AASHTO) standards and DOTD's minimum design standards for rural highways applicable to reconstruction projects. These standards included construction of travel lanes with a minimum 12 foot width, eight foot shoulders, at least 4:1 shoulder slopes, and a right-of-way of 150 feet. [16] Mr. Clary testified that DOTD's failure to maintain, construct properly, or design within proper specifications Highway 37 was, therefore, a cause-in-fact and legal cause of the accident herein. Mr. Clary based his opinion concerning the shoulder slope and its deterioration on his measurements which showed that at the accident site, the shoulder slope was between 1.88:1 to 1.3:1. Mr. Clary concluded that the variance in the shoulder slope's ratio in this area from 3:1, as called for in the 1951 project, was a result of DOTD's failure to maintain the shoulder slope. Mr. Clary further testified that the DOTD's maintenance manual required that DOTD inspect shoulder slopes on a biweekly basis and restore shoulders to original grade and cross slope by bringing in dirt and building the shoulder slope back up. Mr. Clary based his opinion concerning the clearing of the DOTD's right-of-way at the accident site on his presumption that, in 1951, DOTD had cleared and grubbed the right-of-way area. This presumption was based on the 1951 project plan's note that 18.7 acres had been cleared and grubbed in connection with the 10.304 mile project. Mr. Clary admitted that he did not know what particular areas of the project were cleaned and grubbed or whether the cleaning and grubbing of this highway's drainage ditches in the project area was included in the 18.7 acre figure. Further, Mr. Clary testified that the DOTD's maintenance manual provided that DOTD cut grass and trees in the right-of-way and that the first tree that Mr. Cockerham ran into was 10.4 feet away from the edge of the roadway's pavement. While the 1975 project plans did not show right-of-way, the 1951 project plans indicated an existing DOTD right-of-way 30 feet from the center line of the highway where there were no fences. Mr. Clary did not observe a fence adjacent to Highway 37 when he surveyed the accident area, although he acknowledged that Eric Lanier, a DOTD land surveyor, had identified a fence adjacent to the accident site and had included it on the DOTD survey prepared subsequent to the accident. Mr. Clary based his opinion concerning Highway 37's defective safety design on DOTD's failure to include its own minimum design standards for rural highways regarding lane width, shoulder width, shoulder slope ratio, and right-of-way in its 1975 project plans. Mr. Clary testified that these standards were applicable to the 1975 project because it was a reconstruction project. Mr. Clary believed the 1975 project was a reconstruction of 4.55 miles of Highway 37 solely because a definition of reconstruction contained in an appendix to a highway plan and preparation manual indicated the following: 2. Reconstruction Category A: Complete reconstruction along substantially the present alignment. May include minor revisions to the horizontal geometry and vertical alignment. Category B: Reconstruct Base and Surfacing: Existing base and surfacing to be reworked, stabilized or replaced. New surface to be constructed. Existing embankment and drainage to remain in place. No right-of-way required. Category C: Reconstruction and Surface: Same as Category A except that the existing road is not hard surfaced. Highway Plan and Preparation Manual, 1974, Plaintiffs Exhibit 1. Because DOTD's contractor had ground up the base and added cement to create a more stabilized consistency, Mr. Clary believed that the 1975 project met the definition of ReconstructionCategory B contained in the aforementioned handbook. Mr. Clary was unable to identify any other evidence in support of his opinion concerning the nature of the 1975 project. Mr. Eric Lanier (Mr. Lanier), a DOTD land surveyor, testified that he prepared a survey of the accident site. Mr. Lanier testified that he identified a fence line 139 feet north of the accident site running to 15 to 25 feet south of the site. The fence was located in the tree line and appeared to be 20 to 30 years old. The fence was 22 feet from the center line of the roadway and was laying on the ground. Further, Lanier indicated that the remains of the tree he believed was hit by Mr. Cockerham was 10.4 feet from the roadway. Mr. Gordon Nelson (Mr. Nelson), a DOTD employee and the district maintenance engineer for Highway 37 in 1994, testified that DOTD incorporated AASHTO's safety standards in its maintenance manual as was practical. Mr. Nelson stated that DOTD used a slope mower to maintain the shoulder and that the shoulder was filled with material if it washed out. Although AASHTO recommended that trees 4 inches in diameter or greater be cut to at least 30 feet from the pavement edge, Mr. Nelson indicated that DOTD did not have funds or the manpower to cut down all trees along state highways, even though trees may be growing from the backslope of the highway ditches and in the right-of-way. Mr. James A. White, III (Mr. White), a DOTD employee and the maintenance superintendent for Highway 37, testified that the highway was inspected on a bi-weekly basis. Mr. White confirmed that DOTD did not cut down all trees along the highway. Mr. White further testified that in restoring a deteriorated shoulder, DOTD would fill it in to its existing slope. Mr. White testified that the shoulder at the accident site was properly maintained because there was no drop-off, the grass was mowed and a fogline was present. Mr. Richard Savoie (Mr. Savoie), a DOTD employee and engineer in the road design department, testified that he reviewed the 1975 project's plans and identified the work described therein as an overlay or system preservation project. The plans called for stabilization of the roadway base and an overlay of the roadway surface. The plans did not call for work on the shoulder slope. Mr. Savoie further testified that a reconstruction project took four to five years to develop, involved federal funding and required a topographic survey of the entire route to establish right-of-way. In this project, the design plans were included with the contract, a practice not associated with reconstruction projects. Further, additional right-of-way would normally have to be purchased for a reconstruction project since current standards required a 150 foot width. Mr. Savoie testified that, currently, reconstruction cost $1.5 million per mile and that, in the 1970s, reconstruction cost approximately $500,000 to $600,000 per mile without factoring in the cost of additional right-of-way. Mr. Savoie stated that overlay projects were much cheaper. Because the state maintained 16,700 miles of roadway with a budget of $500 million per year at the time of trial, including federal money, the DOTD could not reconstruct all highways needing maintenance or repair. Mr. Savoie testified that, in the case of roadways having only a dirt base beneath an asphalt surface, DOTD may choose to reconstruct and stabilize the base and then add a new overlay. However, there was no confusion at DOTD as to whether this constituted reconstruction. Mr. Savoie claimed that the only engineer whom he had ever heard characterize this type of overlay as a reconstruction was Mr. Clary. Mr. Savoie testified that the highway plan preparation manual and its definitions did not regulate what constituted an actual reconstruction of a highway. Mr. Edward R. Wedge, III (Mr. Wedge), an employee of DOTD and a design engineer manager, testified that he did not believe that the 1975 project met the criteria for an actual reconstruction of the highway, despite the definition, because the vertical and horizontal geometry of the roadway was not upgraded, no topographic survey was prepared, and no additional right-of-way was purchased. Further, based upon the 1975 project's estimated cost of $534,000 for 4.55 miles of work, Mr. Wedge indicated that the 1975 project was an overlay project.