2023 New York Laws › RRD - Railroad › Article 3 - Construction, Operation and Management › 93-B - Maintenance and Removal of Highway-Railroad Separation Structures.

§   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.