09/03/2026
How Texas highway right of way actually works — and why the State doesn’t pay you back for sprinklers and sidewalks that were sitting in it.
A lot of folks in Kress and across Texas get sideways with TxDOT or the State after a highway project because of one thing: they treated the strip between their fence (or yard) and the pavement like it was still theirs.
It usually isn’t. Here’s the plain version.
What right of way is:
The highway right of way (ROW) is the strip of land the State of Texas — through TxDOT — acquired for the road, shoulders, drainage, utilities, safety clear zones, and future work. That land is dedicated to public highway use. TxDOT either owns it in fee simple (the State holds title) or holds a permanent easement that gives the State the right to use it for highway purposes. Either way, it is not private yard. 
Why you aren’t taxed on that strip while you use it
Property the State owns is exempt from local property taxes. Appraisal districts generally do not put dedicated highway ROW on your tax bill as part of your private lot. You pay taxes on the land you still own and control. The State still lets adjoining owners use that strip in limited ways — mow it, keep it neat, sometimes farm or landscape it under an agreement — without charging you taxes on it. That is the deal: you get to use it, you don’t pay tax on it, but you do not own it and you do not get to treat it like private property. 
TxDOT even has written programs for this: agricultural use agreements, permission to mow or bale hay, and landscape/roadside maintenance agreements with cities or owners. Those are permissions. They can be limited or ended when the State needs the ground. 
What happens when the State builds a project on that ROW:
If the work is on existing State right of way and the State (or TxDOT) paid for the project, that land already belongs to the State for highway purposes. Private improvements that were sitting in the ROW when the project started — irrigation lines and sprinkler heads, privately poured sidewalks, decorative rock, extra concrete, fences that drifted into the ROW — were placed on public land.
The State is not required to reimburse you for tearing those items out or replacing them. You generally cannot recover damages from the State for improvements that were in the right of way. Encroachments on State ROW are not protected the way improvements on your private lot are. Adverse possession does not run against the State. Unauthorized or unpermitted items can be removed. Putting sprinklers or a sidewalk in the ROW is at the owner’s risk. 
That is why you hear the same story after a widening, overlay, or drainage job: “They tore up my yard and my sprinklers and won’t pay.” If those items were inside the ROW line, the State’s position is that they were never yours to keep there permanently.
What you should do in Kress:
• Get a copy of your deed and a survey that shows the actual ROW line, not just where the fence or grass starts.
• Ask the Swisher County Appraisal District how your taxable acreage is drawn relative to the highway.
• Do not put irrigation, sidewalks, or permanent landscaping in the ROW without a written permit or agreement from TxDOT.
• If a project is coming, walk the line with the contractor or TxDOT inspector and photograph what is clearly on your private property versus what is in the State strip.
This is how Texas highway right of way has worked for a long time. The State lets you use the strip and does not tax you on it. When the State later needs that same strip for a project it paid for, the land is already the State’s — and private sprinklers and sidewalks that were in it are not something you can bill the State to replace.
If you have a specific lot in Kress and want to know where the line actually sits, bring the deed and survey call the Lubbock TxDOT district. Better to know the line now than after the blades show up.
Johnny Taylor
Mayor, City of Kress, Texas
