| Abstract: | TxDOT manages over one million acres of right-of-way, which is used by a variety of third parties to install facilities such as utilities, saltwater pipelines, and small cell nodes. Third parties include common carriers, who install facilities for public use, and private parties, who install facilities for private use. Common carriers access the right-of-way via permit, for which TxDOT does not have the authority to charge a fee. Private parties lease the right-of-way, and the associated fees are intended to cover administrative costs and the value of the right-of-way. This project developed a valuation methodology and framework to assess the value of the right-of-way for leases of various longitudinal distances and durations and assessed whether common carriers are violating their permits by installing additional facilities and leasing them to private parties. The framework is available as a spreadsheet tool for use within Microsoft Excel and an interactive GeoJSON mapping tool for use in a web implementation. |
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