| Serving
as the "road authority" for over 59,000 miles of road is
one of the major tasks of town boards in Minnesota. These roads
constitute a critical part of the state transportation system.
People access their farms, fields, lake cabins, recreation areas,
hunting areas and their homes on these roads. In Credit River, we
have approximately 46 miles of township road to oversee. Providing,
maintaining and managing roads is a major undertaking that consumes
much of a town board's time and resources.
What is a Town
Road ?
In addition to
the physical aspects of a roadway, (structure, maintenance, etc)
there are "legal" aspects that need to be understood in
order to appreciate the town's rights and responsibilities towards
town roads.
In Minn. Stat.
160.02, subd. 6, "town road" is defined as including
"those roads and cartways which have heretofore been or which
hereafter may be established, constructed, or improved under the
authority of the several town boards, roads established,
constructed, or improved by counties that have been maintained by
the towns for a period of at least one year prior to July 1,
1957." Furthermore, "road" is defined in Minn. Stat
160.02. subd. 7 as including "the several kinds of highways as
defined in this section, including roads designated as minimum
maintenance roads, and also cartways, together with all bridges or
other structures thereon which form a part of the same."
In legal terms,
a town road is typically an "easement" held by the town or
behalf of the public for use by the public. In it's most basic
sense, the easement is an interest in property. An easement conveys
a right to use a described portion of another's property. Easements
are usually granted for particular purposes, most commonly granting
the right to travel over the property (ingress and egress rights).
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Construction
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Road
Inventory
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Road
Issues |
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Traffic
Issues |
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Road
Maintenance |
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Transportation
Funding |
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