The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (Uniform Act), as amended, provided that one of its purposes is ‘... to encourage and expedite the acquisition of real property by agreements with owners, to avoid litigation and relieve congestion in the courts...." It has been observed by the FHWA Office of Real Estate Services (HEPR) that there has been an emerging national trend for increasingly difficult and time consuming right-of-way (ROW) access agreements and acquisitions of smaller parcels from railroads.
The Office of Real Estate Services wants to identify and promulgate effective means of accomplishing the intended Uniform Act goals of minimizing administrative costs and expediting the acquisition of real property and real property access rights from railroads.
In response to State Departments of Transportation (SDOTs) requests to HEPR headquarters, the Federal Highway Administration has determined that it would be a worthy research effort to explore ways in which SDOT ROW access agreements and real estate acquisitions from railroads could be expedited to the benefit of all stakeholders and the safety and convenience of the traveling public.
The frequent complaint is that railroads are slow to process requests for access rights and SDOTs have a difficult time reaching an amicable negotiated settlement. HEPR is aware that addressing this issue on a national scale would be a monumental task, far exceeding the level of resources currently available. The HEPR office is also aware of recent comments on the difficulty of achieving timely acquisitions of rights needed for highway construction and improvement in the northeastern United States. This project will be confined to research of this problem in the northeastern United States, specifically those States through which Amtrak operates its Northeast Corridor.
Amtrak owns or leases much of the "Northeast Corridor'' (NEC).2 The Amtrak-owned or leased NEC runs (with very few breaks in the right-of-way) from Washington D.C. to Boston. The NEC is also considered to include the right-of-way from Philadelphia to Harrisburg Pennsylvania and from New Haven Connecticut to Springfield Massachusetts.
In one sense this current effort can be viewed as a follow on of the research reported in the SHRP 2 report Strategies for Improving the Project Agreement Process Between Highway Agencies and Railroads.3That effort examined nationwide problems associated with the review of the safety, engineering, and operating effects that highway projects have on the railroad during construction and thereafter. While the main focus is on engineering reviews of highway/railroad projects the report does touch on issues related to ROW access/acquisition, insurance and indemnity and places these within the context of the overall project development process.
Many of the “best practices” and recommendations developed for improving the process for engineering reviews are “generic” and would apply to the processes related to ROW easements and acquisitions.
Effective implementation of Uniform Act provisions is vital to the HEPR obligation to successfully meet its lead agency responsibilities. The purpose of this research is to develop approaches which will be useful to acquiring agencies as they advance right-of-way access and land acquisition programs. This includes identifying the best ways to use HEPR resources to help SDOTs and other local public agencies successfully and expeditiously achieve railroad access agreements and acquisitions consistent with the provisions of the Uniform Act, i.e., encouraging and expediting the acquisition of real property by agreements with Amtrak and other railroad operators, avoiding litigation, assuring consistent processing of acquisition requests and promoting public confidence in Federal-Aid Highway ROW acquisition practices.
The objectives of this project were to
In order to meet these objectives Volpe organized and conducted a webinar of representatives from SDOTs, FHWA Division offices, and FHWA Headquarters personnel that have experience in the subject matter. The goal of the webinar was to gather information on stakeholders' experience in acquiring a variety of real estate rights and interests from Amtrak and other railroads. The information gathered at the webinar served as the foundation for the development of a series of questions used in the activities described below.
Following up on the webinar, Volpe interviewed State Directors of Right-of-Way about how they are implementing the railroad acquisition element of their right-of-way programs. The interviews were aimed at determining: (a) at what point of the project management process the railroad is brought into the process (e.g., scoping, design, or acquisition); (b) whether railroad transactions are handled by a special group of railroad acquisition experts; (c) how the SDOTs determine the extent of real estate rights and interests required; and (d) the degree to which the SDOTs were using staff appraisers to perform railroad valuations. The Directors of Right-of-Way interviewed included those of the States included in Amtrak’s NEC.
Volpe interviewed Amtrak real estate leadership to ascertain their involvement and input to the railroad out-conveyance process. The inquiry was similar in scope to that described for State Directors of Right-of-Way. By means of this interview Volpe attempted to ascertain, among other things: (a) how the dollar amount for a proposed out-conveyance is determined;{b) whether there is a uniform application process for such SDOT real estate transactions; (c) whether there is a uniform process for evaluating the SDOTs requests; and (d) if there is a defined time limit for a response to the SDOTs.
