Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 P.S. Counties § 5902. System of main thoroughfares in county

(a) Adoption of System. The county commissioners may, in the manner provided by this section, cause to be laid out, surveyed and adopted a system of main thoroughfares which said board shall adjudge the proper roads to be established and specially constructed and improved. In adopting such system, the commissioners shall consider the population and needs of all parts of the county and make an equitable distribution of the roads to be specially constructed, located and improved by the said county. They shall cause a plan or plans to be made showing said system of proposed roads, the relation of the proposed roads to existing public roads which connect therewith or are to be supplied thereby, the names of abutting property owners, and also roads which already have been improved by the county. Upon approval of said plan or plans by the commissioners, they shall cause said approval to be engrossed upon said plans and certified by at least two commissioners. Said plans shall be filed for public inspection in the office of the commissioners and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in a book to be provided for the purpose.

No part of the proposed roads of said system shall be an easement upon private property or in any manner interfere with the use thereof until established as a public road by the action of the court of quarter sessions.

(b) Improvement of Municipal Roads. Whenever such system of main thoroughfares has been adopted or when the adoption thereof is contemplated within two years after the commencement of such improvement, the commissioners may take exclusive control of and improve any road or section thereof located either wholly or in part in any municipality, whether existing by their authority or laid out in whole or in part by virtue of this act or otherwise. For that purpose, they may originally locate, lay out, establish in whole or in part, relocate, straighten, widen, extend, alter and open roads, and construct and improve the same, and vacate so much of any roads as may be thereby rendered unnecessary and useless. Any road as established or altered, constructed and improved under the provisions of this subsection shall, by ordinance enacted by each municipality through which such road shall pass, become municipal roads, and the duty of maintaining and keeping the same in repair shall devolve upon each respective municipality through or into which the same extends.

(c) Plan of System to Be Followed; Variations. After such plans have been adopted and recorded pursuant to law, all applications under the preceding subsection shall be restricted and shall relate only to the establishing, opening, construction and improvement of the proposed roads of said system or parts thereof and the vacation of roads supplied by the portion opened and improved. The commissioners may relocate, straighten, widen, extend, alter and open, construct and improve the proposed roads as laid out, surveyed, marked and shown upon the plans of said system, or to originally locate, lay out and establish, construct and improve roads which substantially supply said system or parts thereof which, although not parts of said system, are deemed by the said court to be main thoroughfares of sufficient importance to be improved by the county and to be added to said plan, and in such case to vacate so much of the roads of said system and of roads already established as may be rendered unnecessary by the changes or by an entirely new location.

(d) Improvement of Roads Not Part of System on Contribution From Parties Interested. The commissioners may also originally locate, lay out and establish in whole or in part, relocate, straighten, widen, extend, alter and open, construct and improve roads not parts of said system nor deemed main thoroughfares, upon parties interested therein paying or securing to be paid, such proportion of the cost of the original construction and improvement as the commissioners may deem just, which shall not be less than one-fourth of such cost in any case.

(e) Annual Tax. The commissioners may levy, assess and collect an annual tax, of not more than two mills upon the dollar, upon all real and personal property within the county taxable for county purposes, for the purpose of acquiring and securing a fund from which to pay all costs, damages and expenses required in locating, opening, widening, straightening, extending, building, improving, maintaining, repairing or vacating of the roads or parts thereof improved under the provisions of this section, and for the taking and using of such land as may be made necessary in constructing and maintaining proper slopes, embankments, fills and culverts. The moneys so raised shall not be expended for any other purposes than those named in this subsection. All warrants for the payment of any portion of the money raised for the purposes aforesaid shall be issued, in the manner provided by this act, upon estimates which shall be made from time to time by the person charged with such duty, and the amount and time within which the same shall be paid shall be fixed and determined in the contract made for the public work herein authorized.

(f) Borrowing Money and Bond Issue. Any county may borrow money and secure such indebtedness for the purpose of building and improving the roads or any part thereof constructed under the provisions of this section.