A & S, Inc. v. Iowa State Highway Commission

• Decision Date: 24 July 1962
• Docket Number: No. 50225,50225
• Citation: 116 N.W.2d 496,253 Iowa 1377
• Parties: A. AND S, INC., and Lincoln Sales & Service, Inc., Corporations, Appellees, v. IOWA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION, State of Iowa, and Robins Jackson, d/b/a Jackson Construction Company, Appellants, Cedar Rapids Steel Transportation, Inc., Intervenor-Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 496

116 N.W.2d 496

253 Iowa 1377

A. AND S, INC., and Lincoln Sales & Service, Inc., Corporations, Appellees, v. IOWA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION, State of Iowa, and Robins Jackson, d/b/a Jackson Construction Company, Appellants Cedar Rapids Steel Transportation, Inc., Intervenor-Appellee.

No. 50225.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

July 24, 1962.

Even Hultman, Atty. Gen., of Des Moines; C. J. Lyman, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for Iowa State Highway Commission, Ames, and Fisher & Pickens, Cedar Rapids, for appellants.

David G. Bleakley and Harold D. Vietor, Cedar Rapids, for appellees and intervenor-appellee.

SNELL, Justice.

This is an action for injunctive relief to enjoin Iowa State Highway Commission and its construction contractor from installing a median strip without access breaks in the pavement in front of plaintiffs' property. For convenience defendants will be referred to as the commission.

Plaintiff, A and S, Inc., is the owner of a tract of real property abutting the north side of U. S. Highway No. 30 in the western part of Cedar Rapids and about one mile west of its junction with Iowa Highway No. 149. Lincoln Sales & Service, Inc., one of the plaintiffs, and Cedar Rapids Steel Transportation, Inc., intervenor joining with plaintiffs, are lessees of parts of the property. The property has a frontage on the north side of the highway of 435.7 feet. Two driveways service the property by opening either directly or indirectly onto Highway 30.

Highway 30 is a controlled-access primary highway. Since November 12, 1959, the area has been a part of the City of Cedar Rapids.

Plaintiff, A and S, Inc., is a landholding company dependent on leasing to operative lessees. Lincoln Sales & Service, Inc., operates a truck stop and truck terminal with a trailer sales outlet and a farm and industrial equipment dealership. It has servicing contracts with several commercial carriers. Cedar Rapids Steel Transportation, Inc. is an interstate common carrier servicing between Chicago to a 100 airline mile radius of Cedar Rapids.

The evidence indicates that the real estate investment in this property is $85,000 and the equipment and fixtures investment is an additional $127,000. The gross annual business of the three corporations is about $1,800,000. They employ about 78 employees.

U. S. Highway No. 30 from the junction with Iowa Highway No. 149 west past plaintiffs' property has for many years been a two-lane highway. For a number of years plans for the widening and improvement of Highway 30 have been under consideration. Traffic volume studies have been made repeatedly and the anticipated increase in traffic has been calculated.

The highway improvement project was first recommended by the district engineer in the fall of 1957 and, after acceptance by the commission, became a part of its 1958 construction program. Thereafter the plans were revised and 'upgraded' several times. Some but not all of the changes were known to plaintiffs. The original plans did not provide for a median strip separating the east from the westbound traffic.

For a nominal consideration the commission obtained agreements controlling and limiting the access to the highway. The agreements provided for two points of access for plaintiffs, one near the west line of their property and the other some 300 feet east and directly in front of an access of plaintiffs presently used in connection with their business. There is considerable dispute in the evidence about discussions, if any, of median strips and the understanding of the parties as to what constitutes 'access.' Plaintiffs contend that they understood access to mean direct access to all lanes of traffic. Defendant commission contends that access means access to a lane of traffic.

Plaintiffs contend that they were promised by an employee of the commission that if a median strip was installed plaintiffs would be given breaks at each of their entrances and that their agreement consenting to controlled access was based on such assurances.

From time to time the plans for the proposed improvements were submitted to the United States Bureau of Public Roads. The bureau of public roads ultimately recommended a raised median.

As finally designed the project herein involved consisted of a four-lane paved highway 52 feet in total width, including a cement median strip six inches high and four feet wide to separate eastbound traffic from westbound traffic.

The east boundary line of plaintiffs' property is about 3700 feet west of the intersection of Highways 30 and 149. For the purpose of general description but not with engineering accuracy, the project begins about 540 feet west of the intersection of Highway No. 30 and Highway No. 149 and a little less than a mile east of plaintiffs' property. At that point there is a median break designated as number 2. Six hundred forty-two feet farther west is a median break numbered 3. Seven hundred seventy-six feet farther west at a road intersection is break number 4. Fifteen hundred six feet farther west is break number 5. Break number 6 is 1143 feet west of number 5 at a county road intersection. Plaintiffs' property is on the north side of the highway between breaks number 5 and 6. One entrance to plaintiffs' property is 341 feet west of break number 5 and the other entrance is 289 feet farther west. The project plans do not provide for any median breaks at any point in front of plaintiffs' property.

Plaintiffs' property being on the north side of the road, vehicles from the east traveling west could turn into plaintiffs' property at either entrance without difficulty. Vehicles approaching from the west, in order to enter plaintiffs' property, would be required to go beyond to either break number 5 or break number 4 and make a U turn to the left and thus join the flow of traffic going west on the north side of the road to plaintiffs' property. Semi tractor-trailer units with the maximum legal length could make left-hand turns at the median breaks but would have difficulty in making U turns without maneuvers that would greatly interfere with traffic.

To obviate the necessity for U turns in the direct line of traffic, defendant commission proposed the construction of what are called in the record 'jughandles', 'loops' or 'ramps' at median breaks 4 and 6. These jughandles serve as the alternative to frontage roads and provide room for a sweeping curve in order to reverse the direction in which a vehicle travels. They are designed to enable both eastbound and westbound traffic to reverse direction at planned median strip openings by suing the jughandles. The name 'jughandles' was given to the structures because their appearance from above somewhat resembles the handle of a jug or pitcher. If the jughandles are constructed as proposed and no median breaks are provided in front of plaintiffs' property, trucks traveling east would travel 1847 feet beyond the entrance to plaintiffs' property, make a left-hand turn at median break 4, go around the jughandle curve and return to plaintiffs' property from the east.

Vehicles on plaintiffs' premises, in order to proceed east, would travel approximately 513 feet west to the jughandle located at median break number 6 and then, after a sweeping turn, reenter the highway at break number 6, make a left turn, and then proceed eastward on the south side of the highway.

Beginning in 1956 studies and factual surveys of the area, including traffic counts, were made, and by using statistical data complied and analyzed since 1936, defendant commission and its various departments attempt to forecast into the future what the volume of traffic will be on a given stretch of highway. That part of Highway No. 30 immediately west of the junction with Highway No. 149 carries more traffic for the first 37/100 of a mile than it does past plaintiffs' property. By 1959 the daily traffic volume for that part of the highway immediately west of the intersection with Highway No. 149 had increased to 10,660 vehicles per day and for the next one and one-half miles west on Highway 30 the average daily traffic had risen to 8,060 vehicles per day. This represents an increase on the eastern part of 11% per year and for the western part of 8 1/2% per year. Based upon actual count and percentage of increase per year, the commission estimated that the average daily volume of traffic over this section of Highway No. 30 will be 17,800 vehicles per day by the year 1980. This figure takes into account an estimated diversion of vehicles to Interstate Highway No. 80, not yet completed. The highway project has an anticipated useful life of 20 years.

In addition to traffic counts, the commission conducted origin and destination studies and speed checks, and computation of savings in costs in the use of the highway indicating substantial cost savings resulting from construction with a raised median reducing the number of places where traffic can turn.

American Association of State Highway Officials, referred to in engineering circles as AASHO, is composed of representatives of the highway departments of the 50 states. AASHO standards set the highway design criteria for the entire nation and the standards so set are relied upon by the United States Bureau of Public Roads. When the plans for the project in question were submitted to the bureau of public roads in July 1959, the bureau reminded the commission that the AASHO standards for traffic volume of 10,000 per day and over would require a four foot raised median. To comply with this suggestion the plans were 'upgraded' to so provide and construction contracts let.

As the work of the contractor progressed and as it approached a point in front of plaintiffs' property, plaintiffs drove a tractor with an inloader and backhoe immediately in front of the construction forms on the pavement, thus temporarily stopping the work. Immediately thereafter, this action was commenced, and ultimately the construction...