Highway is a basic infrastructure that the government builds and provides for public transportation. In order to make sue the function of transportation planned for the facility be fulfilled, it shall be managed by an appointed authority to prevent it from damage and occupation and lose its original effectiveness. The government agency that is in charge of this kind of management is the highway competent authority. In our country, we use different classification and different responsibility towards the highway management. Different levels of administrative system cover different management duty. The so-called highway “management” includes highway construction, maintenance, and all necessary measures of exercising management rights implemented according to law in order to maintain the completeness and smoothness on the highway. The governing law of each level of highway is as below:
- Each highway management authority is defined in Article 6 of Highway Act as below:
National highways and provincial highways are governed by the central highway authority. But for the provincial highways passing through municipalities or city districts, governance over the highway sections in the municipalities or city districts, except expressways as an unique systems, shall be determined after the negotiation between the central highway authority and municipality governments or city governments. City and district highways are governed by municipality highway authorities; and county highways and country roads are governed by county (or city) highway authorities. But when municipality and county (or city) highway authorities consider it is necessary to delegate part of city or county highways to the central highway authority, they may consult the central highway authority to determine a limited period of highway governance.
- Urban Road Act: Urban roads include all roads which are within urban planning regions, all roads which are within special municipalities and provincial municipalities, and which are outside urban planning regions, and all roads which are within population settlements approved by the central government provincial authority.
The Ministry of Interior of the Central Government, the municipal government in special municipalities, and the county (city) government in county (city) shall be the urban road authorities.
The construction, improvement and maintenance of urban roads within the jurisdiction of the county (bureau) may be managed by the relevant township administrative office.
The implementation of construction, improvement and maintenance of provincial highways or county roads that are not included in provincial city urban planning area and in the township and county urban planning areas shall be managed by the highway competent authority of provincial highway and county roads.
- Village and neighborhood roads that are non-highway system shall be managed by the local county (city) government.
- Management Rules for Exclusive Highway: “Exclusive highway” refers to the roads constructed by public or private institutions and used for their own transportation, such as the access roads connecting to highway in farms, commercial ports, fishing ports, ranches, mines, communities, factories, forest farms, and scenic areas. The exclusive highway shall be managed by the institutional organizations. The construction shall be submitted to and approved by the local highway competent authority that the institution is located.
- Guidelines for River Management: “Flood control roads” refer to the roads and ditches that facilitate flood prevention and emergency transportation and they are part of embankment; the width shall be 10 meters. Its competent authority is Water Resources Department.
- Others: Collector roads between tribes (roads with no highway number) and they are budgeted by Council of Indigenous Peoples according to “mountain tribes collector roads plans” in “Indigenous Peoples Development Program”. They will be coordinated with local highway competent authority (county or city government) for improvement implementation.