Opinion ID: 1695578
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: DOT's Construction Activities

Text: None of petitioners' land was actually taken by the government. Rather, their claim is predicated on the ground that DOT effectively took away their access to S.R. 84 during construction. Three events occurred which petitioners claim deprived them of access to their properties. First, DOT relocated all existing travel lanes of S.R. 84 to the north of their former location in order to construct a new southern bridge over I-95 on S.R. 84. In furtherance of this relocation, DOT eliminated the Ravenswood U-turn and erected a continuous line of concrete barriers between the eastbound and westbound lanes of newly relocated S.R. 84. Eastbound vehicles on S.R. 84 were then required to travel an additional mile and one-half to a U-turn at S.W. 15th Avenue to gain access to the properties. Second, when DOT completed construction of the new southern bridge, all travel lanes of S.R. 84 were relocated to the extreme south of its right-of-way in order to construct a new northern bridge for S.R. 84 over I-95. To maintain access to petitioners' properties, DOT created a service road from the old westbound lanes of S.R. 84 by using concrete barriers which separated the service road from the travel lanes of S.R. 84. Access to S.R. 84 was then available to the properties by a narrow break in the concrete barrier wall. With the exception of the western driveway of Parcel 1, the properties no longer directly abutted S.R. 84, but instead abutted the temporary service road. Subsequently, DOT signalized the service road at S.W. 26th Terrace and removed the barrier wall at the western end of the service road. Third, at the same time that DOT created the service road, it also physically severed all S.R. 84 connections to I-95. All persons seeking access to the properties by the I-95 exits onto westbound S.R. 84 were relegated to using I-595 which exited onto S.W. 26th Terrace, a route which added between 2.32 and 2.43 miles to the previous route for many persons.