2023 Oklahoma Statutes › Title 69. Roads Bridges and Ferries › §69-1722. Location and removal of certain public utilities - Condemnation of railroad property or right-of-way - Exemption from payment of costs and expenses.

A. The location and removal of all telephone, telegraph, fiber optic, electric light and power transmission lines, poles, cables, wires and conduits, sewers and all pipelines erected, constructed or in place upon, across or under any turnpike shall be under the control and supervision of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, insofar as same affects the public travel or interferes with the construction and maintenance of such turnpike. Whenever the Authority plans a turnpike project or improvement or construction or reconstruction thereof, and before such work is started, it shall serve a written notice upon the person, firm, or corporation owning or maintaining any such facility, which notice shall contain a plan or chart indicating the places on the right-of-way where such facilities may be maintained. The notice shall state the time when the work of constructing or improving such turnpike is proposed to commence, and a reasonable time shall be allowed to the owner of the facility to remove and relocate its property; provided, however, that the effect of any change ordered by the Authority shall not be to exclude the facilities from the turnpike right-of-way. The removal and relocation of all such facilities shall be made at the cost and expense of the owners thereof, unless otherwise provided by law or the Authority, and in no event shall such relocation result in a taking of the owner's property rights without just compensation as provided in Section 1708 of this title. The removal and relocation of all such facilities shall be made at the cost and expense of the owners thereof, unless otherwise provided by law or the Authority, and in the event of the failure of such owners to remove the same at the time set out in the notice, the facilities may be removed by the Authority and the cost thereof collected from such owners, and the Authority shall not be liable in any way to any person for the locating or relocating of such facilities at the places prescribed. Any corporation or association, or the officers or agents of such corporation or association, or any other person who shall erect or maintain any such lines, poles, cables, wires and conduits, sewers, pipelines, equipment or other facilities within the right-of-way of any turnpike in a manner not in complete accordance with the requirements of the Authority shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
B. With respect to any railroad property or right-of-way, any powers of condemnation may be exercised to acquire only an easement interest therein which shall be located either sufficiently far above or sufficiently far below the grade of any railroad track or tracks upon such railroad property so that neither the proposed project nor any part thereof, including any bridges, abutments, columns, supporting structures and appurtenances, nor any traffic upon it shall interfere in any manner with the use, operation or maintenance of the trains, tracks, works or appurtenances or other property of the railroad nor endanger the movement of the trains or traffic upon the tracks of the railroad. Prior to the institution of condemnation proceedings for such easement over or under such railroad property or right-of-way, plans and specifications of the proposed project showing compliance with the above-mentioned above or below grade requirements and showing sufficient and safe plans and specifications for such overhead or undergrade structure and appurtenance shall be submitted to the railroad for examination and approval. If the railroad fails or refuses within thirty (30) days to approve the plans and specifications so submitted, the matter shall be submitted to the Corporation Commission whose decision, arrived at after due consideration in accordance with its usual procedure, shall be final as to the sufficiency and safety of such plans and specifications and as to such elevations or distances above or below the grade. Such overhead or undergrade structure and appurtenances shall be constructed only in accordance with such plans and specifications and in accordance with such elevations or distances above or below the tracks so approved by the railroad or the Corporation Commission as the case may be. A copy of the plans and specifications approved by the railroad or the Corporation Commission shall be filed as an exhibit with the petition for condemnation.
C. Rural water districts, nonprofit water corporations and municipal public water systems in municipalities with a population of ten thousand (10,000) or less, according to the latest Federal Decennial Census, or their beneficial trusts shall be exempt from the payment of the costs and expenses for the removal and relocation of water and sewer pipelines and all such facilities constructed or in place in the public right-of-way when the removal and relocation of such facilities is necessary for the improvement, construction or reconstruction of any turnpike. Such costs and expenses, including any unpaid on the effective date of this act, shall be paid by the public authority having jurisdiction over the particular turnpike.
Added by Laws 1968, c. 415, § 1722, operative July 1, 1968. Amended by Laws 1997, c. 282, § 3, emerg. eff. May 27, 1997; Laws 1998, c. 206, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 1998.