Other LanguagesThe state highway commission does not have the statutory authority to regulate the erection or location of drive‑in theaters along state highways unless such structures constitute a nuisance under RCW 47.32.130 or 47.36.180.
The Highway Commission may delegate to the Director of Highways those powers and duties which are ministerial, or those upon which the policies have, by reason of rules and regulations of the Commission, become so crystallized that the exercise of the powers has become ministerial. But the Commission may not delegate those functions, such as the establishment of policies, which are in their nature quasi-judicial.
The Washington State Highway Commission cannot be compelled to grant franchises under RCW 47.44 or 47.52 except by a court of competent jurisdiction, and then only upon a showing that the refusal to grant a franchise was occasioned by fraud or manifest abuse of discretion.
(1) Under RCW 46.68.120 (3) (e) the legislature has imposed the duty, every four years beginning in 1958, upon the joint fact-finding committee and the highway commission to jointly re‑examine [[reexamine]] all the factors on which the estimated costs per trunk mile for the several counties have been based, and based upon such re‑examination [[reexamination]] and acting in a fact-finding capacity, the highway commission and the joint fact-finding committee are then required jointly to make such adjustments in the estimated annual costs per trunk mile for the several counties as may be necessary. (2) The estimated annual costs per trunk mile as adjusted by the joint fact-finding committee on highways, streets and bridges and the highway commission, pursuant to RCW 46.68.120, are to be used in making the 1962 allocations of fuel taxes to the counties.
After a highway has become an established limited access facility it is not necessary for the state highway commission to hold a hearing before it can change or modify the plan of access control in a manner that will either provide more restrictive or more liberal access to said highway.
With respect to the Legislative Council, Columbia Basin Commission, Highway Commission and Washington State Power Commission, the "per diem rates provided by law provision" contained in section 1, chapter 288, Laws of 1953, (the general appropriations act) is not affected by the limitations contained in chapter 259, Laws of 1953, but must be construed with reference to the enabling acts setting up such bodies.
The state of Washington acting through the state highway commission has the general authority under existing state law to acquire new ferries by a lease‑purchase contract so long as the contract does not violate any provisions of the state constitution.
The highway commission has full charge of operation and maintenance of toll bridges and toll ferries throughout the state, but the Toll Bridge Authority also has the power to operate the Puget Sound ferry system.