Section 228. Payment of state aid

1. The county superintendent shall notify
  the commissioner when work has been commenced on an approved project. As
  work   progresses   on   a  project  according  to  approved  plans  and
  specifications, a town may request the state aid in relation thereto  to
  be  paid  in  installments or it may request such aid to be paid after a
  project has been completed.
    2. Claims for such aid shall be made on forms prepared  and  furnished
  by  the  commissioner. They shall be executed in the name of the town by
  the town superintendent or, where  such  work  is  done  pursuant  to  a
  contract  with  the  county  or with an independent contractor, the town
  board may authorize the town supervisor to execute such  claims  instead
  of  the  town  superintendent.  Such claims, when approved by the county
  superintendent, shall be filed with the commissioner.  The  commissioner
  shall  examine  such  claims  and shall certify to the state comptroller
  within thirty days of the receipt of such claims the amounts  which  the
  state  should  pay  thereon  to  the supervisor of the town. If any such
  claim or any portion thereof  be  disapproved,  the  commissioner  shall
  immediately  notify  the town board, the board of supervisors and county
  superintendent of such action. Any such claim must  be  filed  with  the
  commissioner in the year for which the project was approved or not later
  than  the  thirty-first  day  of January in the calendar year succeeding
  that for which the project was  approved  except  where  work  has  been
  deferred with the approval of the commissioner for completion during the
  following  construction  season.  The  commissioner  shall not otherwise
  certify payment of the final installment of state aid  for  any  project
  unless  the  work thereon has been completed according to approved plans
  but all other installments  may  be  paid  with  the  final  installment
  allocated  to  stabilization  and  surfacing materials deferred until so
  completed.
    3. In the final adjustment of any claim, if it is  determined  that  a
  town  has  been  paid  an  amount in excess of that permitted under this
  article, the state comptroller shall withhold an equivalent amount  from
  any  state  aid  payable  to  the  town pursuant to sections two hundred
  seventy-nine and two hundred eighty of the highway law.