(a) It is hereby declared by the Legislature of Alabama that all city and town streets and roads in the State of Alabama, including viaducts, bridges, and culverts, do now, and will in the future, serve a state purpose and are of benefit to the people of the state, that said streets and roads, including viaducts, bridges, and culverts, are public highways and bridges and that it is a proper and legitimate function for the state to provide for the cost of maintaining, improving, constructing, and reconstructing such streets and roads in cooperation with the city or town involved.

(b) The State Department of Transportation, hereinafter referred to as the department, in cooperation with the city or town involved, is hereby authorized and empowered to make expenditures from its funds for all, or any part of, the costs of maintaining, improving, repairing, constructing, and reconstructing all or any portion of the streets and roads, including viaducts, bridges and culverts, in every city and town in the State of Alabama; provided, however, that nothing contained in this section shall require the department to maintain, improve, repair, construct, or reconstruct the streets and roads or portions thereof in any city or town in the state; and provided further, that nothing contained in this section shall affect the duties and obligations of the department to maintain and repair the streets and roads or any portion thereof in any city or town which are or may hereafter be designated as connecting link roads under the provisions of Article 4 of this chapter.