Grimes v. Department of Transportation

We granted leave to appeal to consider whether the shoulder is part of the “improved portion of the highway designed for vehicular travel” for the purpose of the highway exception to governmental immunity. We conclude that a shoulder is not within the exception because it is not “designed for vehicular travel.”

In reaching this conclusion, we overrule the holding in our earlier decision in Gregg v State Hwy Dep’t that a *74shoulder is “designed for vehicular travel.”1 Gregg subsequently has been relied on by lower courts for the proposition that every shoulder is “designed for vehicular travel.”…