The authority may build and alter road structures, but it must avoid interrupting traffic, pay related project costs and damages, reimburse actual damages from entry activities, and require utility facilities to be relocated or removed when needed.
§1256. Incidental powers A. The authority shall have the power to construct and reconstruct traffic circles, interchanges and grade separations at intersection of any project with public roads, grade separations at intersections with railroads, and to change and adjust the lines and grades of such public roads so as to accommodate the same to the design of such grade separation. The cost of such construction and any damage incurred in changing and adjusting the lines and grades of such roads shall be ascertained and paid by the authority as a part of the cost of such project. The authority shall not interrupt the flow of traffic on any established state highway; and any approaches, underpasses or overpasses necessary to avoid the interruption of the flow of such traffic shall be constructed at the expense of the authority. B. If the authority shall find it necessary in connection with any project to change the location of any portion of any public road, it shall cause the same to be reconstructed at such location as the authority shall deem most favorable and of substantially the same type and in as good condition as the original road. The cost of such reconstruction and any damage incurred in changing the location of any such road shall be ascertained and paid by the authority as a part of the cost of such project. C. If the discontinuance or vacation of any public road is required by the construction of any project, such discontinuance or vacation may be effected on application of the authority in the manner now provided by the applicable statutes of the state of Louisiana and where such statutes provide for damage, and damages awarded on account thereof shall be paid by the authority as a part of the cost of such project. D. The authority and its authorized agents and employees shall also have the power to enter upon any lands, waters and premises in the state for the purpose of making surveys, soundings, drillings and examinations as it may deem necessary or convenient for the purpose of this Chapter, and such entry shall not be deemed a trespass, nor shall such entry for such purpose be deemed an entry under any eminent domain proceedings which may be then pending. The authority shall make reimbursement for any actual damages resulting to such lands, waters and premises as result of such activities. E. The authority shall also have power to make reasonable regulations, including, but not by way of limitation, the authority to grant easements for the installation, construction, maintenance, repair, renewal, relocation, and removal of tracts, pipes, pipe lines, mains, conduits, cables, wires, towers, poles, and other equipment and appliances, of any public utility, or pipe line company, or of any corporation or person owning or operating pipe lines in, on, along, over, or under any project. Whenever the authority shall determine that it is necessary that any such facilities which now are, or hereafter may be located in, on, along, over or under any project should be relocated on such project or should be removed from such project, the public utility, corporation, or person owning or operating such facilities shall relocate or remove the same in accordance with the order of the authority, provided that the cost and expense of such relocation or removal, including the cost of installing such facilities in a new location or new locations, and the cost of any lands or any rights or interests in lands, or any other rights acquired to accomplish such relocation or removal shall be ascertained and paid by the authority as a part of the cost of such project. In case of any such relocation or removal of facilities, the public utility, corporation, or person owning or operating the same, its successors or assigns, may maintain and operate such facilities, with the necessary appurtenances, in the new location or new locations, for as long a period, and upon the same terms and conditions, as it had the right to maintain and operate such facilities in their former location or locations. F. The Expressway Authority shall construct or provide underpasses or overpasses for the passage of livestock and vehicles under said turnpike at such intervals as it may deem necessary. Acts 1954, No. 232, §6.