Section 27-69-104 - Powers and duties of state agenciesThe Arkansas Department of Transportation or other departments of the state are authorized to:
(1) Acquire and convey to the United States parkway areas in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter;(2) Allocate necessary funds when appropriations are available therefor for the acquisition of parkway areas and for other purposes outlined below as and when needed;(3) Arrange for or rearrange fencing, cattle passes, or piping water supply to adjoining landowners; change overhead wires; construct underground wire and pipe crossings; reconstruct public and private roads; make surveys, and prepare land maps and conduct condemnation suits, all without cost to the United States;(4) Exercise the right of eminent domain to appropriate and condemn land or waters of sufficient width to conform to the requirements of this subchapter and to convey them to the United States for parkway, easement, recreation, or conservation purposes with title to the land vesting in the state upon institution of such proceedings; and to acquire by fee simple areas, scenic and other easements and areas requested for revetments, quarries, gravel, dredging, and borrow pits found necessary for parkway construction;(5) Have its representatives and those of the United States enter upon private lands for the purpose of making surveys; to hold the United States free and harmless from claims arising from the surveys, development, construction, maintenance, and operation of the parkway undertaken by the United States on such property; and to protect parkway areas by state authority after acquisition by the state and acceptance by the United States Secretary of the Interior until such time prior or subsequent to construction as the condemnee shall have received full compensation therefor from the state;(6) Provide for the relocation or abandonment of sections of local, public, and private roads, or of railroads by agreement therewith, on parkway land as may be necessitated by the design and construction of the parkway when such relocation or abandonment does not interfere with flood control projects or rulings of the Arkansas Public Service Commission;(7) Convey all or portions of state-owned areas and state-owned easements to the United States of sufficient amount to conform to the requirements of this subchapter when the parkway extends through state-owned areas or absorbs state-owned easements;(8) Assume indebtedness or secure releases therefrom through irrigation, flood control, drainage, or other political districts or subdivisions wherever outstanding indebtedness exists therein;(9) Provide for the concurrent jurisdiction of this state over the parkway areas after title thereto becomes vested in the United States;(10) Permit, as soon as the route of the parkway shall be determined, the immediate payment of premiums on standing timber, pending final purchase in order to discourage timber cutting by owners during the negotiation period or the execution of leases in advance of possession, satisfactory to the United States Secretary of the Interior;(11) Permit the elimination of existing and the denial of new frontage or access rights to the parkway motor vehicle road and on parkway land to landowners whose land abuts the parkway land by one (1) or more of the following remedies: purchase of residual tracts, acquisition by excess condemnation, provision of other means of access to public highways, acquisition of private rights-of-way, or adjustment of damages;(12) Require the elimination of stock grazing on parkway land or the unrestricted use therefor of such land by adjacent landowners;(13) Undertake preliminary surveys and preparation of topographical plats of the flagged locations of the parkway road for the purpose of aiding the federal engineers in determining the final location of the parkway road and right-of-way boundaries; and(14) Construct, relocate, or abandon any local, public, or service road, crossing or parallel to the parkway road on parkway land, when requested by the United States Secretary of the Interior.Amended by Act 2017, No. 707,§ 404, eff. 8/1/2017.Acts 1939, No. 45, §§ 6, 11; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 76-1806, 76-1811.