Electronic Appraisal Methodology for Right-of-Way Acquisition in Highway Projects

When right-of-way is acquired for highway projects, state departments of transportation (DOTs) must ensure property owners receive a fair market value for their land by delivering high-quality appraisals. Despite recent technological advances, the highly complicated appraisal process often results in similar properties being assessed differently. Several DOTs sponsored a study to develop an electronic appraisal method to improve the appraisal process and to reduce the likelihood of inconsistent appraisal values by capturing, transmitting, storing, managing, and analyzing the appraisal data. The proposed method’s framework is discussed and a prototype of the system has been developed to demonstrate its features.