(A) The Department of Transportation shall conduct vegetation management of the medians, roadsides, and interchanges along the interstate highway system in accordance with the following requirements:

(1) a median of not more than eighty feet in width shall have its mowable area mowed in its entirety. A median wider than eighty feet only shall be mowed within forty feet from the edges of the pavement.

(2) a roadside shall be mowed thirty feet from the edge of the pavement. If fill slopes or back slopes are steep, one swath of the mower or not less than five feet shall be mowed on these slopes.

(3) an interchange shall be mowed in the same manner as a roadside, provided that the distance from the pavement required to be mowed may be increased to address any safety concerns involved.

(B) The mowing widths provided in subsection (A) may be increased when necessary to provide adequate visibility for signs erected by the department, when the department determines that increasing the widths is in the public interest, or upon request of the governing body of a county or municipality.

(C) The vegetation management activities conducted by the department shall not interfere in any way with the visibility of any outdoor advertising sign.

(D) If the Department of Natural Resources makes an assessment and written determination that vegetation management pursuant to this section causes an increase in safety risks because of the attraction of wildlife to a specific area along the highway, then the department may increase the distance from the pavement required to be mowed.

(E) Upon the written approval of the Department of Transportation, a county or municipality, at its own expense, may itself conduct vegetation management activities beyond vegetation management widths provided in subsection (A) if the department declines to conduct vegetation management in those areas.

HISTORY: 1999 Act No. 17, Section 5; 2012 Act No. 136, Section 1, eff April 2, 2012; 2012 Act No. 144, Section 1, eff April 2, 2012.