Section 103-A. Obstructions and removals  


Latest version.
  • Obstructions, within the meaning
      of this section, shall include trees which have been cut or have  fallen
      either  on adjacent lands or within the bounds of the highway, in such a
      manner as to interfere with public travel therein; limbs of trees  which
      have  fallen  within  the  highway, or branches of trees overhanging the
      highways so as to interfere with public travel therein; lumber, wood  or
      logs  piled  within the bounds of the public highway; machines, vehicles
      and implements abandoned or habitually placed within the bounds  of  the
      highway; fences, buildings or other structures erected within the bounds
      of  the  highway;  earth, stone or other material placed in any ditch or
      waterway along the highway; telegraph,  telephone,  electric  and  other
      poles,  and  the wires connected therewith, erected within the bounds of
      the highway in such a manner as to interfere with the use of the highway
      for public travel.
        It shall be the duty of each owner or occupant of lands situate  along
      the  highway,  to remove all obstructions except such structures as have
      been placed or erected  by  a  public  utility  corporation  or  for  an
      otherwise  public  purpose, within the bounds of the highway, which have
      been placed there by such owner or occupant  or  with  his  consent.  It
      shall  be  the  duty  of  all public utility corporations, to remove and
      reset poles and the wires connected therewith, when the same  constitute
      obstructions  to  the  use  of  the  highway by the traveling public. If
      temporary obstructions such as trees,  lumber,  wood,  logs,  machinery,
      vehicles and similar obstructions are not removed within five days after
      the  service  of a notice by mail or forty-eight hours after the service
      of a notice personally, upon such owner or occupant, requesting the same
      to be done, the county superintendent  of  highways  shall  remove  such
      obstruction.  And  if  permanent  obstructions, including, among others,
      telegraph, telephone, electric  and  other  poles  and  wires  connected
      therewith,  are not moved and reset within thirty days after the service
      of a notice personally or by mail upon the owner of such poles or wires,
      the county superintendent of highways shall move and  reset  such  poles
      and  wires.  The cost and expenses incurred by the county superintendent
      in removing such obstructions may be recovered by the  county  from  any
      person or corporation responsible therefor in an action to be instituted
      by  the  county attorney. And all recoveries under this section shall be
      credited to the county road fund.