(a) Subject to Subsection (c), an authority may acquire public or private real property in the name of the authority by the exercise of the power of condemnation under the laws applicable to the exercise of that power on property for public use if:
(1) the authority and the property owner cannot agree on a reasonable price for the property; or
(2) the property owner is legally incapacitated, absent, unknown, or unable to convey title.
(b) An authority may condemn real property that the authority determines is:
(1) necessary or appropriate to construct or to efficiently operate a turnpike project;
(2) necessary to restore public or private property damaged or destroyed, including property necessary or convenient to mitigate an environmental effect that directly results from the construction, operation, or maintenance of a turnpike project;
(3) necessary for access, approach, and interchange roads;
(4) necessary to provide proper drainage and ground slope for a turnpike project; or
(5) necessary otherwise to implement this chapter.

Terms Used In Texas Transportation Code 366.165

  • Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.

(c) An authority may construct a supplemental facility only on real property the authority purchases.
(d) An authority shall, in a statement or petition in condemnation, exclude from the interest to be condemned all the oil, gas, and sulphur that can be removed from beneath the real property. This exclusion shall be made without providing the owner of the oil, gas, or sulphur any right of ingress or egress to or from the surface of the land to explore, develop, drill, or mine the real property.