Request By:
Hon. Hubert Thacker
Rockcastle County Judge Executive
Mt. Vernon, Kentucky 40456
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Eileen Walsh, Assistant Attorney General
Your question concerns the situation where a citizen of a county asks the State Highway Department to install an approach tile on a state right-of-way. Your question is whether it is legal for a county to furnish the tile and the State Highway Department to install same with a permit issued by the state. It would appear that it would not be legal for the county to furnish the tile for such a project.
Under KRS 177.106 before a person "shall proceed to cause . . . any encroachment under, on or over any part of the right of way of a state highway he shall first obtain from the bureau of highways a permit so to do." 603 KAR 1:020 prescribes standards for the construction and maintenance of driveway approaches and entrances on the rights-of-way of the Bureau of Highways. 603 KAR 1:020 § 1(1)(b) provides that the citizen shall furnish at his own expense, all drainage pipe, tile, or other drainage structure required. The Bureau of Highways will then participate in the construction of the entrance up to an expenditure of three hundred dollars by providing equipment, labor, etc.
Thus, it would appear to be improper for a county to furnish the tile for such a project. It should further be noted that county road money is to be spent only on county roads as defined in KRS 178.010(1)(b).