Title 17 . Transportation and Public Facilities

Chapter 15 . Miscellaneous Provisions

Section 901. Definitions

17 AAC 15.901. Definitions

In this chapter

(1) "at-grade railroad crossing" means the place where a railroad track and a department right-of-way intersect at the same elevation or grade;

(2) "betterment" means any upgrading of a utility facility that is made solely for the benefit of the utility and is not required by the department to be made in order to accommodate construction by the department;

(3) "boring" means the method of installing underground conduit or pipe under a structure or through an embankment by use of a drilling auger;

(4) "cantilever-mounted signals" means railroad crossing signals that are mounted on an arm or a truss beam which extends over the roadway and is attached to a post or tower placed at the side of the roadway;

(5) "casing" means any pipe that encloses a pipeline;

(6) "cathodic protection" means a process or system used to control electrochemical corrosion of an underground metallic structure (such as a pipeline) by the application of an electric current;

(7) "commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities or his designee;

(8) "coring" means the method of installing underground conduit or pipe through hard material like rock or concrete by using a hollow-tube drilling instrument with cutting teeth on the end;

(9) "controlled-access highway" means a highway upon which the rights to access, light, view, and air by owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons are controlled by the department so as to facilitate through traffic;

(10) "controlled-access limits" means the area of the highway right-of-way in which highway access is controlled;

(11) "cost of relocation" means the cost incurred by a railroad or utility that is properly attributed to the relocation of a utility or railroad facility after the deduction of any increase in the value of the new facility and any salvage value attributable to the old facility;

(12) "depth of burial" means the depth to the top of the pipe, cable, or other underground structure as measured from the surface of a roadway, ditch, or natural ground;

(13) "department" means the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities;

(14) "double deadend structure" means an overhead wire safety device designed to prevent an overhead wire from falling onto a roadway;

(15) "eligibility ratio" means that ratio between utility or railroad relocation costs that are eligible for reimbursement and the total cost of the entire utility or railroad relocation work;

(16) "encroachment" means any structure or object which is in, on, under, or over a portion of a department right-of-way;

(17) "expired service life credit" is equal to the original cost of the existing facility multiplied by the number of years the facility has been in service divided by total life expectancy of the facility in years;

(18) "facility" or "facilities" or "utility facility" includes, but is not limited to, poles, lines, trenches, bridges, utilidors, tunnels, pipelines, and any other system for furnishing, producing, generating, transmitting, or distributing power, electricity, communications, telecommunications, water, gas, oil, petroleum products, steam, heat, light, chemicals, air, sewage, drainage not connected with highway drainage, irrigation, or any other substance;

(19) "frontage road" means a local street or road auxiliary to and located on the side of an arterial highway and used for service to abutting property and adjacent areas and for control of access;

(20) "grade separation" means the vertical separation by the use of a suitable structure of the grades of two intersecting roadways or the grades of a roadway and an intersecting railroad track;

(21) "grade-separation structure" means a bridge, culvert, tunnel, viaduct, or other similar structure;

(22) "highway" means a road, roadway, street, trail, walk, bridge, tunnel, road drainage structure, or other road-related structure or facility, including the entire area within a highway right-of-way;

(23) "highway structure" includes bridges, buildings, culverts, pedestrian overcrossings, pedestrian tunnels, retaining walls, utilidors, and tunnels;

(24) "jacking" means the method of installing underground conduit or pipe under a roadway or other state property or through an embankment by pushing or packing a liner or heavy-gauge pipe beneath the facility;

(25) "joint-use agreement" means an agreement between a utility owning poles, trenches, or other facilities and other utilities which sets forth the terms and conditions by which the poles, trenches, or other facilities, owned by the first utility, can be used by other utilities;

(26) "joint-use facility" includes a pole line, trench, bridge, utilidor conduit, or tunnel which is used by two or more utilities;

(27) "longitudinal utility facility" means a utility facility that runs relatively parallel to a highway or airstrip;

(28) "median" means the portion of a divided highway that separates the traveled ways for traffic;

(29) "non-pipe push" means the method of installing non-pipe materials under a roadway or other state property or through an embankment by using a pushing force;

(30) "plowing" means the installation of underground cable for electricity, telephone, or cable television by use of a mounted plow-like instrument which digs and feeds out cable at the same time;

(31) "railroad" includes all rail carriers, whether publicly or privately owned, including steam, diesel, and electric railroads, interurban railways, interurban street railways, and every other type of street railway;

(32) "railroad crossing" includes the tracks, structures, crossing slabs, drainage structures, and crossing protection devices which are required to permit railroad trains to cross a department right-of-way either at-grade or by use of grade-separation structures;

(33) "railroad crossing signal" means a signal with flashing lights that is used to indicate the approach or presence of trains at railroad crossings;

(34) "railroad facility" means any structure or facility that is used for railroad purposes;

(35) "relocate" means adjust, change, remove, or reposition;

(36) "restoration" means replacing, repairing, or otherwise restoring a right-of-way or other area to the same condition that existed before any construction or relocation work took place;

(37) "right-of-way" and "department right-of-way" mean a highway easement, airport easement, section-line easement, any material or borrow pit leased or owned by the state, and any land leased or owned by the state and occupied by a public facility;

(38) "roadway" means that portion of the highway, including shoulders, intended for vehicular use;

(39) "roadway prism" means that portion of the highway right-of-way between the bottoms of the ditches on either side of the roadway, the toes of fills on either side of the roadway, or the backs of curbs on either side of the roadway, including the slope, shoulders, pavement, and median strips less than 60 feet wide;

(40) "routine maintenance" means the repair of any defective or damaged part of a facility or the replacement of that part at the same location by another part of the same type, capacity, or design, and includes the routine clearing of the area immediately adjacent to pedestals, vents, pipes, marker signs, or other similar objects to ensure their visibility to the public and other users of department rights-of-way;

(41) "rural highway or road" means a road or highway without access controls that is located outside of an urban area;

(42) "siphon" means a conduit, pipe, or tunnel that is used to conduct water from an open waterway to a lower elevation and then return it to another open waterway at the elevation of the original waterway;

(43) "specifications" means all directions and requirements pertaining to and governing the performance of work;

(44) "state" means the State of Alaska;

(45) "department contract" means a contract for construction of a project which is advertised, awarded, and administered by the department and which may contain items relating to utility or railroad facilities work;

(46) "surface-mounted facility" means any utility or railroad facility extending above the surface of the ground, including poles, posts, and hydrants;

(47) "telecommunications" or "communications" means the transmission and reception of messages, impressions, pictures, and signals by means of electromagnetic waves, force variations, impulses, or any other kind of energy, whether conveyed through cable or wire, or whether radiated through space or transmitted through any other medium;

(48) "toe of fill" means the point where the slope of the roadway building foundation fill, or airport runway fill intersects with the natural ground;

(49) "top of cut" means the point where the back slope of a roadway cut section intersects with the natural ground;

(50) "traveled way" means that portion of the roadway intended for the movement of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders and parking lanes;

(51) "undefined shoulder" means the area adjacent to a traveled way where the roadway surface is on the same level as the natural ground and there is no longitudinal drainage ditch or roadway fill or cut;

(52) "urban highway or street" means any roadway or highway without access controls that is located within a first or second class city, or is located within the municipal center of a unified municipality or within a developed area that has a commercial, industrial, or residential character;

(53) "utilidor" means a structure containing one or more channels, usually prefabricated in units, including units that are fitted with a removable cover that may also be used as a sidewalk or roadway surface;

(54) "utility" includes any corporation, company, individual, or association of individuals, or any lessee, trustee, or court-appointed receiver, that owns, operates, manages, or controls any line, plant, pipeline, or system for furnishing, producing, generating, transmitting, or distributing power, electricity, communications, telecommunications, water, gas, oil, petroleum products, steam, heat, light, chemicals, air, sewage, drainage not connected with highway drainage, irrigation, or similar products including publicly owned fire and police signal systems and street lighting systems which directly or indirectly serve the public or a segment of the public; "utility" also includes any corporation, company, individual, or association of individuals, or any lessee, trustee, or court-appointed receiver that owns, operates, manages, or controls any system for furnishing transportation of goods or persons by means of a railway, tramway, cableway, conveyer, flume, canal, tunnel, pipeline, or any other similar means;

(55) "utility locate service" means a service provided by a utility to locate its buried utility facilities;

(56) "utility service connection" means the cable, wire, or pipe that connects the utility distribution line to the premises served;

(57) "wet-boring" means the method or process of boring with the use of jets of water or liquid slurry;

(58) "airport" has the same meaning as in AS 02.15.260 (5);

(59) "public facility" has the same meaning as in AS 35.25.020 (7).

History: Eff. 5/23/82, Register 82; am 10/2/87, Register 103

Authority: AS 02.15.020

AS 02.15.102

AS 02.15.106

AS 19.05.020

AS 19.05.040

AS 19.30.051

AS 19.30.121

AS 19.40.065

AS 35.05.020

AS 35.10.230