As used in this title, the term:

(1) "Abandon" means to close permanently to public travel or to relinquish jurisdiction of a preexisting public road by official action as required by Chapter 7 of this title, thereby foreclosing the duty of future maintenance on such preexisting public road.

(2) "Board" means the State Transportation Board.

(3) "Borrow pit" means land from which dirt, gravel, rock, or related material will be excavated and used for a public road purpose. Such land need not be immediately adjacent or contiguous to the road or project under construction, repair, or reconstruction.

(4) "Bridge" means a structure, including the approaches thereto, erected in order:

(A) To afford unrestricted vehicular passage over any obstruction in any public road, including, but not limited to, rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, bays, ravines, gullies, railroads, public highways, and canals; or

(B) To afford unrestricted vehicular passage under or over existing railroads and public roads.

(5) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of transportation.

(6) "Construction" means the planning, location, surveying, designing, supervising, inspecting, and actual building of a new road; or the paving, striping, restriping, modifying for safety purposes, grading, widening, relocation, reconstruction, or other major improvement of a substantial portion of an existing public road together with all activities incident to any of the foregoing.

(7) "County" means either one of the several counties, any division, department, agency, authority, instrumentality, or branch thereof, or the county governing authority, that is, the judge of the probate court, board of county commissioners, county commissioner, or other county officers in charge of the roads, bridges, and revenues of the county.

(8) "Dedication" means the donation by the owner, either expressly or impliedly, and acceptance by the public of property for public road purposes, in accordance with statutory or common-law provisions.

(9) "Department" means the Department of Transportation.

(10) "Federal-aid systems" means those public roads in Georgia comprised of The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, the federal-aid primary system, the federal-aid secondary system, and the federal-aid urban system as those terms are defined in Section 103 of Title 23 of the United States Code.

(11) "Grade crossing" means a crossing at grade of a public road intersecting a track or tracks of a railroad. (12) "Grade separation structure" means an underpass or overpass as defined in this Code section.

(13) "Let" means to award a contract to one of several persons who have submitted competitive bids therefor in response to advertisement.

(14) "Limited-access road" means a public highway, road, or street for through traffic, over, from, or to which owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons have no right or easement or only a limited right or easement of access, light, view, or air by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon such limited-access highway, road, or street or for any other reason.

(15) "Maintenance" means the preservation of a public road, including repairs and resurfacing not amounting to construction as defined in this Code section.

(16) "Municipality" means an incorporated city, the governing body of which holds at least six regular meetings each year and which for a period of one year has levied and collected an ad valorem tax on the real property in such city or has for a one-year period performed at least two of the following municipal activities and services:

(A) Furnished water service;

(B) Furnished sewage service;

(C) Furnished garbage collection;

(D) Furnished police protection;

(E) Furnished fire protection;

(F) Assessed and collected business licenses;

(G) Furnished street lighting facilities.

The term may also refer to any division, department, agency, authority, instrumentality, or branch of a municipality. Where the context requires or otherwise indicates, the term "municipality" may also mean the municipal governing authority, that is, the mayor and council, board of aldermen, board of commissioners, or other chief legislative body of a municipality.

(17) "Negotiated contract" means a contract made without formal advertising for competitive bids.

(18) "Other transportation purposes" or "other public transportation purposes" means any transportation facility designed to transport people or goods, including but not limited to railroads, port and harbor facilities, air transport and airport facilities, mass transportation facilities, as defined in paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of Code Section 32-9-1, transportation projects, as defined by subsection (h) of Section 2 of an Act approved March 10, 1965 (Ga. L. 1965, p. 2243), as amended, and transportation enhancement activities, as defined in Section 101 of Title 23 of the United States Code, as amended by Public Law 102-240 as it existed on January 1, 1993. However, in no event and for no purpose shall the term "other transportation purposes" or "other public transportation purposes" be deemed to include coal slurry pipelines.

(19) "Overpass" means a bridge, including the approaches thereto and all appurtenances thereof, for carrying public road traffic over a railroad or another public road or for providing pedestrian walkways over a public road.

(20) "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or private organization of any character.

(21) "Private road" means a privately owned road or way, including any bridge thereon, which is only open for the benefit of one or more individuals and not for the general public. This term also means a road which lies on privately owned land.

(22) "Proposal guaranty" means acceptable surety furnished by a bidder as a guaranty that he will enter into a contract and will furnish contract performance and payment bonds if a contract is awarded to him.

(23) "Protective devices" means gates, flashing light signals, and similar devices or combinations thereof, together with necessary appurtenances, to be installed or in operation at any grade crossing and which comply with the safety standards determined by the department as being adequate at that time for the protection of traffic.

(24) "Public road" means a highway, road, street, avenue, toll road, tollway, drive, detour, or other way open to the public and intended or used for its enjoyment and for the passage of vehicles in any county or municipality of Georgia, including but not limited to the following public rights, structures, sidewalks, facilities, and appurtenances incidental to the construction, maintenance, and enjoyment of such rights of way:

(A) Surface, shoulders, and sides;

(B) Bridges;

(C) Causeways;

(D) Viaducts;

(E) Ferries;

(F) Overpasses;

(G) Underpasses;

(H) Railroad grade crossings;

(I) Tunnels;

(J) Signs, signals, markings, or other traffic control devices;

(K) Buildings for public equipment and personnel used for or engaged in administration, construction, or maintenance of such ways or research pertaining thereto; (L) Wayside parks;

(M) Parking facilities;

(N) Drainage ditches;

(O) Canals and culverts;

(P) Rest areas;

(Q) Truck-weighing stations or check points; and

(R) Scenic easements and easements of light, air, view, and access.

(25) "Right of way" means, generally, property or any interest therein, whether or not in the form of a strip, which is acquired for or devoted to a public road.

(26) "Scenic easement" means a servitude devised to permit land to remain in private ownership for its normal agricultural, residential, or other use consistent with public road purposes but at the same time placing a control over the future uses of the area to maintain its scenic, landscape, sightly, or safety values for the public road which the land adjoins.

(27) "State agency" means any division, department, instrumentality, branch, or other body of the state to which state governmental functions have been delegated.

(28) "Subcontract" means a contract by which one agrees with a party to another contract to perform all or a part of such other contract.

(29) "Underpass" means a bridge, including the approaches thereto and all appurtenances thereof, which provides access for a public road underneath a railroad or another public road or for a pedestrian walkway underneath a public road.

(30) "Utility" means any publicly, privately, or cooperatively owned line, facility, or system for producing, transmitting, or distributing communications, power, electricity, light, heat, gas, oil products, water, steam, clay, waste, storm water not connected with highway drainage, and other similar services and commodities, including publicly owned fire and police and traffic signals and street lighting systems, which directly or indirectly serve the public. This term also means a person, municipal corporation, county, state agency, or public authority which owns or manages a utility as defined in this paragraph.

(31) "Vehicle" means a device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public road.