KYTC Warns Owsley Residents: Unauthorized Signs on State Rights-of-Way Will Be Removed

With primary season pushing political yard signs onto roadsides across eastern Kentucky, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's District 10 has put candidates, businesses, and residents on notice: unauthorized signs inside state highway rights-of-way are illegal and crews are already moving to pull them.

The warning covers all ten counties in District 10, including Owsley, Breathitt, Estill, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Morgan, Perry, Powell, and Wolfe. KYTC personnel began removing signs from state highway rights-of-way in advance of mowing cycles and road work, or in standalone sweeps when no other pressing maintenance needs compete for crew time.

The sweep is not limited to campaign signs. KYTC personnel have also noted a significant volume of signs advertising yard sales, businesses, events, and services planted along state roads. All of those fall under the same prohibition. Kentucky law and KYTC policy bar any non-official sign on state right-of-way unless it has been approved through a permit process.

A KYTC official identified as Poat did not mince words about what prompted the action. "Our highway right-of-way has been flooded with political signs in many of our counties," Poat said, adding: "State law gives the Transportation Cabinet the authority to remove illegal signs from state property."

What happens to a sign once crews pull it depends on its size. Larger signs removed from rights-of-way in District 10 counties will be transported to the state highway garage in the applicable county and held for two weeks. Smaller signs, particularly those pushed into the ground with metal frames, will be discarded outright rather than held for retrieval.

The prohibition extends well beyond freestanding signs in the grass. Attaching signs or stickers to stop signs, highway markers, right-of-way fences, guardrails, or utility poles is also illegal. The same applies to flyers, posters, balloons, and streamers fixed to any road sign or utility pole. KYTC noted that illegal attachments to utility poles create additional hazards for utility personnel working on that infrastructure.

Understanding where state right-of-way actually ends is critical for anyone placing a sign near a road. Depending on the highway, that boundary extends between 15 and 30 feet from the edge of the pavement. Field fence lines along nearby properties offer a rough indicator of where private property begins. On most four-lane highways, right-of-way reaches all the way to the fence line and includes the roadway side of those fences, meaning a sign stapled to a fence post alongside a four-lane route is still on state property.

Yard sale organizers face an additional reminder: all yard sale activities, including customer parking, must remain off right-of-way limits, not just the signs advertising the sale.

The safety rationale is operational as well as legal. Signs planted within the right-of-way obstruct mowing equipment, force crews to work around obstacles at speed, and can block drivers' sight lines at intersections where even a temporary visual obstruction carries real risk. KYTC asked Kentuckians to do their part by keeping state rights-of-way clear of temporary signs and other obstacles before crews are forced to do it for them.