Governors Look to Highway Rights of Way to Power the Next Generation Grid

Governors and their teams are increasingly eyeing highway and rail corridors as prime real estate for the energy and broadband build‑out the country now needs. On November 4, 2025, the National Governors Association (NGA) brought together state, federal, and industry leaders in Washington, D.C., to dig into how existing transportation rights of way can carry not just vehicles—but also transmission lines, fiber, and other critical linear infrastructure.

Why this roundtable matters

The roundtable, held as part of NGA’s Fall 2025 Governors’ Infrastructure Coordinators Workshop and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, built on recent national conversations about “reinventing the right of way.” Participants drew on work from the National Academies, AASHTO’s Right of Way and Utilities committee, and innovators like The Ray, all of whom are exploring how to co‑locate energy and communications infrastructure in existing corridors.

NGA’s goal was straightforward: get Governors’ infrastructure coordinators, DOT leaders, and other state officials more familiar with both the promise and the pitfalls of using existing ROW instead of carving out brand‑new corridors.

Key themes: benefits and challenges of co‑location

State, federal, utility, and rail representatives surfaced several recurring themes:

• Big upside: Co‑locating transmission, fiber, and pipelines in existing highway and rail ROW can shorten development timelines, reduce environmental impacts, and ease public opposition compared with greenfield routes—an especially big deal as AI and advanced manufacturing drive new base‑load power demand.

• Real risks: Safety and technical concerns—like corrosion or fault risks around pipelines, liability when multiple owners share the same corridor, and the potential need to move assets for future road widenings—make some co‑location scenarios complex, especially for natural gas.

• Planning mismatch: Utilities, DOTs, and local governments often work on different planning and budgeting cycles, and face different regulators, which makes it hard to time co‑located projects or bundle them with planned roadway safety or capacity improvements.

• Local opposition and policy barriers: While existing ROW can be more acceptable than new easements, participants noted lingering concerns about property values and viewsheds, as well as state laws and scenic restrictions that outright prohibit certain utilities in highway corridors.

• Underused assets: Unused rail lines and railroad ROW emerged as promising—but under‑leveraged—corridors for new transmission and broadband if states can better align rail planning and utility accommodation.

What Governors can do

The second half of the discussion focused on actionable steps Governors and their infrastructure teams can take:

• Lead and convene: Governors’ offices can use their convening power to bring together DOTs, public utility commissions, utilities, railroads, and ISPs, shifting the mindset from “why can’t we do this?” to “why not do this?”—ideally without waiting for a crisis like a natural disaster.

• Remove policy barriers: States can modernize statutes that block co‑location, adopt “dig once” policies, and streamline permitting—such as using categorical exclusions for projects entirely within continuous ROW. Minnesota’s 2024 move to lift a prohibition on utility siting along certain state and interstate highways was highlighted as a model.

• Invest in data and planning tools: Better GIS mapping, constructability assessments, and ROW inventory tools (such as ESRI‑based right‑of‑way platforms) can help states identify high‑value corridors and move projects more quickly through permitting.

• Treat ROW as an asset: Participants urged DOTs and railroads to think of ROW as a revenue‑generating strategic asset, using long‑term leases or fees from co‑located infrastructure to help backfill flat or declining transportation revenues and clarify cost‑sharing for future repairs.

Next steps for states

To keep momentum, the roundtable summary points to several near‑term actions for Governors’ offices: assess current state policies and data, form cross‑agency working groups or advisory committees, align incentives and fee structures across agencies, consider targeted regulatory or legislative changes, and explore regional coordination with neighboring states on multi‑state corridors.

For a ROW‑focused blog audience, you could frame this as a turning point: state leaders are no longer asking whether transportation corridors should host energy and broadband infrastructure—they’re asking how to do it safely, legally, and profitably at scale.