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SUN 1ARY One of the primary responsibilities of local government is to build and maintain streets and sidewalks (public rights of way) to safely and efficiently carry traffic in the community's commercial and residential districts. Above the surface, vehicular and pedestrian traffic is transitory in nature. The direction, routing, and speed of such traffic can be easily altered according to the community's changing needs. Below the surface, however, a variety of users place permanent facilities that cannot easily be removed, repaired, or relocated. Among the facilities permanently placed within the public rights of way are water mains, natural gas pipes, sewage systems, power lines, high- pressure steam ducts, telephone wires, and cable television system cables. Right of way is a limited public resource that must accommodate every users' unique system design, specific space and depth requirements, and particular maintenance techniques and schedules. The result is a complex underground system crowded with numerous users all providing essential utilities to the community. Given the volatility of the gas, water, power, and steam facilities that coexist with the telecommunications facilities in the public rights of way, any user's facility placement, maintenance, and repair work creates a potential public safety hazard. Public safety is also a concern when surface traffic is rerouted or when the street or sidewalk is improperly repaired. In order to protect the public safety as well as the existing facilities of other users, local governments must encourage safe and efficient rights of way practices through effective management processes. There are many factors that must be addressed during the ongoing management process, including: obtaining proof of compliance with all electrical, construction, and engineering standards; coordinating road cuts, facility locates, and map updates of multiple users; assigning short-term road repair responsibilities; and setting long-term road maintenance goals. Local governments use these procedures to protect the facilities of all rights of way occupants and to develop safe and efficient streets and sidewalks. As more users seek to enter the rights of way, public safety concerns intensify and management costs escalate. With each additional entrant into the rights of way, local governments face increased road replacement costs. Local governments and citizens also face indirect costs such as increased travel time, loss of access and trade to local businesses, and increased noise pollution and visual intrusion. The rent occupants pay to local governments for the permanent use of the rights of way helps to defray only a portion of these costs. Without the ability to receive fair and reasonable compensation for the use of the public rights of way from all private users, local governments will be forced to raise taxes in order to cover the increased rights of way costs associated with telecommunications competition. NATOA, June 1995