§ 27:7-13 — Use of bridges and viaducts by public utilities; agreement

No person shall lay any tracks, pipes or conduits on, over or under any public viaduct or bridge constituting a part of the state highway system, or connect any wires, cables or other appliances to any such viaduct or bridge without first obtaining the consent of the commissioner and complying with such reasonable terms and conditions as may be prescribed by him, but any public utility subject to the regulation of the board of public utility commissioners, whose rates are subject to be fixed by that board, and which has the right to use the highway on both sides of any such viaduct or bridge or which had or shall have its tracks, pipes, conduits or wires in, on, over or under any such viaduct or bridge when it was or shall be taken over by the commissioner as part of a state highway, may lay, connect, maintain and operate its tracks, pipes, conduits, wires, cables or other appliances in, on, over or under any such viaduct or bridge, and in, on, over and upon any new viaduct or bridge including the necessary highway approach thereto constructed at the same or a new location in substitution for any such viaduct or bridge, at its own cost and expense, under such reasonable terms and regulations as the commissioner has prescribed or may hereafter prescribe, which terms and regulations may be contained in an agreement between the commissioner and the public utility. The agreement may contain such provisions with regard to the use made or to be made of the viaduct or bridge as have been or may be agreed upon, but in no event shall any such public utility be required to pay for any such use more than an amount sufficient to compensate the state for the extra burden imposed upon the state by reason of the use of any such viaduct or bridge by the public utility. If the commissioner and the public utility cannot agree upon the terms and regulations or the amount to be paid as hereinbefore provided, an application may be made to the board of public utility commissioners, which shall, after hearing, fix the terms and regulations governing such use and the amount to be paid by the public utility. This section shall not relieve any such public utility from the payment of any sum which, on August twelfth, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine, was due or claimed to be due or accrued under any contract previously entered into by the public utility for its use of any bridge or viaduct.