§ 66. Restrictions on the construction of farm and road bridges. A
person shall not be entitled to demand a farm bridge across a canal or
feeder where the necessity of convenience of such bridge shall have
arisen from the division or acquisition of property subsequent to the
location of such canal or feeder. A street or road bridge shall not be
constructed by the commissioner of transportation over a canal or
feeder, except upon such streets or roads as were laid out, worked or
used, previously to the construction of the canal or feeder, by which
such street or road is obstructed; and when bridges are constructed or
reconstructed upon any such streets or roads, the cost to the state
shall in no case be more than is required to preserve in a safe and
substantial manner the continuity of such streets or roads so as not to
unnecessarily impair their usefulness. When a bridge of a more costly
nature is desired by the local authorities of a city, town or village
within whose corporate limits a bridge is to be built or rebuilt, the
commissioner of transportation, on presentation to him by such local
authorities of plans and specifications for such bridge and approval
thereof by him shall estimate and determine the proportion of the cost,
which, in order to preserve the continuity of such streets and roads,
the state ought equitably to pay, and file such estimate and
determination in his office and a duplicate thereof in the office of the
clerk of such city, town or village. If a private road or public highway
is laid out by legal authority in such direction as to require the
erection of a new bridge over a canal for the accommodation of the road,
such bridge shall be so constructed and forever maintained at the
expense of the town, village or city in which it shall be situated.