Highway Act: Difference between revisions

Name of legislation in several countries

Highway Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used in India, the United Kingdom and the United States for legislation relating to highways.

• The Highways Act 1707 (6 Ann. c. 56)

• The Highways Act 1710 (9 Ann. c. 23)

• The Highways Act 1718 (5 Geo. 1. c. 12)

  The Highways Act 1718 allowed statute labour to be commuted into a monetary payment. This allowed parishes to high labourers instead of relying on compelled unpaid work by local residents. The act also imposed rules on minimum wheel width and maximum cart weights, to try to reduce damage to roads.

• The Highway (Scotland) Act 1718 (5 Geo. 1. c. 30)

  The Highway (Scotland) Act 1718 retained existing pre-Union Scottish law on highways, bridges and ferries, whilst moving closer to the English system of highway maintenance by requiring parishioners to provide labour to maintain roads, and charging justices of the peace with providing oversight and imposing penalties.

• The Highways Act 1747 (21 Geo. 2. c. 28)

  The Highways Act 1747 amended and reinforced earlier rules on wagon wheels and maximum cart weights, and increased penalties for non-compliant vehicles.

• The Highways (No. 2) Act 1766 (7 Geo. 3. c. 42)

  The Highways (No. 2) Act 1766 consolidated and replaced all earlier national highways legislation in England and Wales.

Highways Act 1768
Long title	An Act to explain, amend, and render more effectual, an Act passed in the Seventh Year of His present Majesty’s Reign, intituled, “An Act to explain, amend, and reduce into One Act of Parliament, the several Statutes now in being, for the amendment, and Preservation of the Public Highways of this Kingdom; and for other Purposes therein mentioned.”
Citation	8 Geo. 3. c. 5
Territorial extent	Great Britain
Royal assent	21 December 1767
Commencement	24 November 1767[a]
Repealed	15 July 1867
Amends
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1867

• The Highways Act 1768 (8 Geo. 3. c. 5)

  The Highways Act 1768 reinforced rules on wagon wheels, requiring them to be at least 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) wide to reducing cutting into the road surface and rutting. The act also increased penalties for failing to provide statute labour, gave additional powers to the parish surveyors of highways.

• The Highway Act 1794 (34 Geo. 3. c. 64)

  The Highways Act 1794 strengthened the duties of surveyors of highways, and clarified the obligation of landowners to contribute statute labour towards the maintenance of highways within their parish, alongside tougher penalties for parishes that neglected the repair of roads.

• The Highways Act 1794 (34 Geo. 3. c. 74)

  The Highways Act 1794 improved the system of surveyors of highways by appointing professional, paid surveyors to replace unpaid parish officers. It also moved from maintenance by unpaid local labour (‘statute labour’) to paid highway rates to fund the upkeep of parish roads. This act reinforced the traditional system, as a step towards an further changes the next month, modernising and the system.

• The Highway (Railway Crossings) Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c. 45)

  The Highway (Railway Crossings) Act 1839 required railway companies to maintain gates at every point a public highway crossed a railway, and to employ gatekeepers to open and shut the gates. The act clarified that level crossing maintained and operation were responsibilities of the railway companies and not the parish or turnpike authorities.

• The Highway Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 61)

  The Highway Act 1862 started the move away from the ancient parish-based system of road maintenance by allowing the creation of highway districts. Highway districts grouped parishes together; within a highway district the highway board (composed of representatives from the constituent parish vestries) levied a highway rate and managed the maintenance of the roads. The act didn’t apply to urban areas where road maintenance sat with improvement commissioners or local boards.

• The Highway Act Amendment Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 13)

  The Highway Act Amendment Act 1885 made a number of minor amendments to earlier acts to adjust the power of highway boards, and amend rules on the administration of highway rates.

• The Highways Act 1959 (7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 25)

  The Highways Act 1959 was another consolidating act, consolidating and rationalising a large number of highway related laws passed since the 18th century.

• The Highways (Amendment) Act 1986 (c. 13)

  The Highways (Amendment) Act 1986 strengthened the section 161 Highways Act 1980 prohibition on lighting fires or discharging firearms within 50 feet of a highway by introducing stricter penalties if any highway user was injured or endangered by a fire, discharge of firearm, or setting off of a firework.

The Highway Acts 1835 to 1885 was the collective title of the following acts:^[2]