In purchasing land, INDOT must adhere to various laws and regulations regarding the purchase of private property for public use.  These laws and regulations provide that property owners must be compensated, at fair market value, for the value of acreage and improvements required for actual construction, relocation costs, costs for acquiring structures and improvements due to lost access, and administration fees.  Mineral rights are acquired as part of the bundle of ownership rights.  They have no appraised value unless they already have been sold.  If these mineral rights have been sold, they will be appraised separately if the acquisition of the land for the highway is considered to interfere with the mining interests.  In some instances, INDOT will acquire the surface rights only, subject to the sub-surface interests.

Where there are active mineral extraction activities (such as limestone mining, oil fields or coal mines), these will be appraised for their value if acquiring the land impacts the operations.  Absent the sale of these mineral rights to a third party, or the existence of an active extraction operation, INDOT is required by law to purchase the land needed for a highway at fair market value without consideration of undeveloped mineral deposits.  (Updated 11/14/07)

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