§193. Highways through municipalities

A. The department is hereby directed to repair and to keep in operating condition at its sole cost and expense, all municipal roads or streets which form a continuation of one of said highways; however, the final decision as to the designation or location of the particular municipal road or streets to be placed in the state system shall be left entirely up to the department. At the request of the governing authority of a municipality, the work may be contracted out to such municipality, but all such maintenance costs shall be paid for by the state, provided that the state shall not be responsible for the maintenance of sewers, street lighting, gas and water mains, and other public utilities. All damages to the streets or highways occasioned by the laying of sewers, street lighting, and other public utilities shall be paid by the owner thereof. The department shall control the parking on any highway which is hereafter constructed, widened, or relocated at the sole expense of the state. The department shall control signal lights and traffic other than parking on highways in the state system established hereby.

B. All new construction or relocation of roads, overpasses, underpasses, bridges, tunnels, or other highway betterment of roads in the state system located in municipalities shall be a cooperative effort between the municipality and the department; however, nothing herein shall prohibit a municipality from making contributions necessary to improve said highways beyond the standards fixed by the department. Nothing herein shall preclude the department from requiring railroads and such other public utilities which use the same from contributing to the payment of overpasses and underpasses and other traffic control devices, which contribution shall be reasonable under the circumstances and conditions to be determined by negotiation or arbitration. Nothing in this Subsection shall in any way affect the provisions of R.S. 33:3701 or any other general or special law applicable to municipal streets and to the extension of state highways through municipalities. Nothing herein shall be construed as altering the existing law concerning the removal of public utilities.

C. In order to create a more efficient system of state highways and to eliminate a duplication of effort and properly channel traffic through the said municipalities, each municipality of over five thousand in population in this state, according to the latest available census, shall develop and adopt a master street plan which shall be submitted for approval by the department which shall insure the proper location and integration of the state highway connections in the total city street plan, which shall be subject to revision as traffic conditions may require.

D. The department is fully authorized through its officers and officials to enter into all contracts and agreements with municipalities, parishes, road districts, or other public agencies of the state of Louisiana or of the United States, and all private individuals, partnerships, corporations, or other private legal entities necessary to carry out the provisions of R.S. 48:191 through 193.

E. All public roads, road projects, bridges, tunnels, or other highway betterment involving parish or municipal streets or roads made under the provisions of R.S. 48:191 through 193 or any other Act of the legislature in which state-allocated revenues are used in the construction thereof shall be constructed and maintained in accordance with engineering standards and procedures established by the department, and the department is fully authorized to withhold certification or approval to any such project or highway betterment unless it is constructed in accordance with the standards established by the department for the project.

F. Nothing contained in R.S. 48:191 through 193 shall permit the department to place in any of the functional classifications of state highways created thereby a greater total mileage than authorized by R.S. 48:191.

G. In any parish with less than one hundred miles of roads not on the state highway system, the police jury of the parish, with the approval of the department, may contract with the department to perform maintenance or construction work on parish roads under such terms as can be mutually agreed upon.

Amended by Acts 1955, No. 40, §4; Acts 1999, No. 363, §1, eff. June 16, 1999.