2023 Revised Code of Washington › Title 81 - Transportation › Chapter 81.36 - Railroads—Corporate Powers and Duties. › 81.36.010 - Right of eminent domain.

RCW 81.36.010
Right of eminent domain.
Every corporation organized for the construction of any railway, macadamized road, plank road, clay road, canal or bridge, is hereby authorized and empowered to appropriate, by condemnation, land and any interest in land or contract right relating thereto, including any leasehold interest therein and any rights-of-way for tunnels beneath the surface of the land, and any elevated rights-of-way above the surface thereof, including lands granted to the state for university, school or other purposes, and also tide and shore lands belonging to the state (but not including harbor areas), which may be necessary for the line of such road, railway or canal, or site of such bridge, not exceeding two hundred feet in width, besides a sufficient quantity thereof for toll houses, workshops, materials for construction, excavations and embankments and a right-of-way over adjacent lands or property, to enable such corporation to construct and prepare its road, railway, canal or bridge, and to make proper drains; and in case of a canal, whenever the court shall deem it necessary, to appropriate a sufficient quantity of land, including lands granted to the state for university, school or other purposes, in addition to that before specified in this section, for the construction and excavation of such canal and of the slopes and bermes thereof, not exceeding one thousand feet in total width; and in case of a railway to appropriate a sufficient quantity of any such land, including lands granted to the state for university, schools and other purposes and also tide and shore lands belonging to the state (but not including harbor areas) in addition to that before specified in this section, for the necessary side tracks, depots and water stations, and the right to conduct water thereto by aqueduct, and for yards, terminal, transfer and switching grounds, docks and warehouses required for receiving, delivering, storage and handling of freight, and such land, or any interest therein, as may be necessary for the security and safety of the public in the construction, maintenance and operation of its railways; compensation therefor to be made to the owner thereof irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, in the manner provided by law: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That if such corporation locate the bed of such railway or canal upon any part of the track now occupied by any established state or county road, said corporation shall be responsible to the state or county in which such state or county road so appropriated is located, for all expenses incurred by the state or county in relocating and opening the part of such road so appropriated. The term land as herein used includes tide and shore lands but not harbor areas; it also includes any interest in land or contract right relating thereto, including any leasehold interest therein.
[ 1961 c 14 § 81.36.010. Prior: 1907 c 244 § 1; 1903 c 180 § 1; 1895 c 80 § 2; 1888 p 63 § 2; Code 1881 § 2456; 1869 p 343 § 2; RRS § 10539.]