N.Y. Highway Law § 103-a: Obstructions and removals

§ 103-a. Obstructions and removals. Obstructions, within the meaning

of this section, shall include trees which have been cut or have fallen

either on adjacent lands or within the bounds of the highway, in such a

manner as to interfere with public travel therein; limbs of trees which

have fallen within the highway, or branches of trees overhanging the

highways so as to interfere with public travel therein; lumber, wood or

logs piled within the bounds of the public highway; machines, vehicles

and implements abandoned or habitually placed within the bounds of the

highway; fences, buildings or other structures erected within the bounds

of the highway; earth, stone or other material placed in any ditch or

waterway along the highway; telegraph, telephone, electric and other

poles, and the wires connected therewith, erected within the bounds of

the highway in such a manner as to interfere with the use of the highway

for public travel.

It shall be the duty of each owner or occupant of lands situate along

the highway, to remove all obstructions except such structures as have

been placed or erected by a public utility corporation or for an

otherwise public purpose, within the bounds of the highway, which have

been placed there by such owner or occupant or with his consent. It

shall be the duty of all public utility corporations, to remove and

reset poles and the wires connected therewith, when the same constitute

obstructions to the use of the highway by the traveling public. If

temporary obstructions such as trees, lumber, wood, logs, machinery,

vehicles and similar obstructions are not removed within five days after

the service of a notice by mail or forty-eight hours after the service

of a notice personally, upon such owner or occupant, requesting the same

to be done, the county superintendent of highways shall remove such

obstruction. And if permanent obstructions, including, among others,

telegraph, telephone, electric and other poles and wires connected

therewith, are not moved and reset within thirty days after the service

of a notice personally or by mail upon the owner of such poles or wires,

the county superintendent of highways shall move and reset such poles

and wires. The cost and expenses incurred by the county superintendent

in removing such obstructions may be recovered by the county from any

person or corporation responsible therefor in an action to be instituted

by the county attorney. And all recoveries under this section shall be

credited to the county road fund.