33.1-223.2 - Intermittent closing of roads subject to flooding; costs; application for permit; notice; issuance of permit.
§ 33.1-223.2. Intermittent closing of roads subject to flooding; costs;application for permit; notice; issuance of permit.
A. Upon application of the board of directors of any soil and waterconservation district and of the board of supervisors of the county whereinthe road is located, the Department of Transportation is hereby authorized topermit the intermittent closing of any road located within the boundaries ofsuch district and county whenever in its judgment it is necessary to do soand when the road will be intermittently subject to inundation by floodwatersretained by an approved watershed retention structure. All costs associatedwith such closing shall be borne by the board of supervisors of the county,including the costs of furnishing, erecting and removing the necessary signs,barricades, signals and lights to safeguard and direct traffic.
B. Before any permit may be issued for the temporary inundation and closingof such a road, an application for such permit shall be made to theDepartment of Transportation by the board of directors of the soil and waterconservation district and the board of supervisors of the county wherein theroad is located. The application shall specify the road involved and shallrequest that a permit be granted to the county to allow the intermittentclosing of the road.
C. Before making such application, the board of supervisors of the countywherein such road is located shall give notice of the proposed action bypublication once each week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper ofgeneral circulation in the county, and such notice shall contain adescription of the places of beginning and the places of ending of suchintermittent closing. In addition to such publication, the board ofsupervisors of such county shall give notice to all public utilities havingfacilities located within the rights-of-way of any road being closed bymailing a copy of such notice to the office of each such public utilitylocated within the county, or if no office is located within the county, thento the office of such utility located nearest to the county. Furthermore, nosuch application shall be accepted by the Department of Transportation whichdoes not certify compliance by the applicants with the aforesaid requirementsof publication and notice in the manner prescribed herein. All costsassociated with the application procedure and notice to the public and topublic utilities shall be borne by the board of supervisors of the county.
D. Not sooner than thirty days after the last publication and not sooner thanthirty days after the mailing of such notice, the Department ofTransportation may issue the permit with respect to such road. Nothing hereincontained shall require the Department to issue such a permit when theDepartment, in its sole discretion, does not consider such intermittentclosing of roads to be in the best interest of fulfilling the Department'sduties to the traveling public.
(1976, c. 172.)