§ 93-b. Maintenance and removal of highway-railroad separation
structures. The responsibility of a railroad corporation to maintain
and keep in repair highway-railroad separation structures as provided by
law shall not terminate upon the abandonment of the railroad or a
portion thereof, but such responsibility, with respect to state
highways, shall continue unless otherwise agreed upon by the railroad
corporation and the state, and shall continue with respect to highways
other than state highways unless otherwise agreed upon by the governing
body or its designee, of the municipality having jurisdiction over the
highway, until the separation structure is removed as hereinafter
provided. When a structure remains which separates a highway and an
abandoned railroad, the railroad, or the transferee of the abandoned
railroad right-of-way when the transfer of such responsibility has been
approved by the commissioner, and the state, or the municipal
corporation having jurisdiction over the highway, may mutually agree as
to their allocations of the expenses of removal of the structures and
its supports and restoration of the highway. If such approval is not
obtained, the responsibility for maintenance and removal continue with
the railroad. In the event that the interested parties are unable to
agree as to the necessity to remove a grade separation structure, the
manner of removal or the division of cost or the division of performance
of the removal work within one year after the date of the abandonment by
the railroad corporation, either such railroad or such transferee of the
railroad rights-of-way or the municipality having jurisdiction over the
highway may petition the commissioner to hold a hearing in order to
consider such matter. The commissioner upon receipt of such a petition,
or on his own motion with respect to state highways, shall designate a
time and place for a hearing to consider the matter. After such a
hearing has been held, the commissioner shall determine by order whether
it is in the public interest to require either removal of or the
retention of the structure and its supports, in whole or in part, and
shall direct the manner of accomplishing any such removal and the manner
that the cost and expenses of any such removal or the performance of any
such removal work shall be divided. The division of cost to the railroad
or transferee shall be limited to the cost of structure removal only,
including superstructure and substructure elements. Material so removed
shall become the property of the railroad, or the value gained from the
salvage disposition of such material shall be returned to the railroad.
The cost of any embankment removal or placement, or highway restoration,
shall be borne by the state, or the municipal corporation having
jurisdiction over the highway. The decision of the commissioner rendered
in any proceeding under this section shall be communicated after final
hearing, to the petitioner, the railroad corporation or transferee, the
municipal corporation and all other parties who appeared at said hearing
by counsel or in person. Any person aggrieved by such decision, and who
was a party to said proceeding, may within sixty days after the service
of such decision appeal therefrom to the appellate division of the
supreme court in the department in which such separation structure is
located, and to the court of appeals, in the same manner and with like
effect as is provided in the case of appeals from an order of the
supreme court.