No bridge without a draw shall be built or maintained across any water navigated by open-deck vessels for business purposes, whose passage would be impeded thereby. If any bridge is so maintained or its construction commenced, the Superior Court, or any judge thereof in vacation, upon the complaint of any party aggrieved, may enjoin the maintenance or construction of such bridge, and may order its removal at the expense of the respondent and that a suitable bridge be built, and may establish the width of the draw therein, but, whenever any highway is laid out over any navigable water, the committee of the Superior Court appointed with power to lay out such highway or a committee appointed by the Superior Court upon the application of the selectmen of the town which has laid out such highway may inquire, after due and reasonable notice to all parties interested, whether the building, construction or maintenance of a bridge without a draw will materially interfere with the navigation of such water by open-deck vessels for business purposes. If such committee finds that the construction or maintenance of such a bridge without a draw will not materially interfere with the navigation of such water, such committee, after giving at least five days' notice in the manner prescribed for the service of legal process to all persons owning wharves, docks or wharf privileges above such bridge, may assess the damages which the construction of such bridge without a draw will cause to the owners of such wharf or wharf privileges and, if the committee finds that the total amount of such damages, if paid by the town in which such bridge is located, will be more economical for such town than the construction or maintenance of such bridge with a draw, such bridge may be maintained, built or constructed without a draw, after the amount of damages so found has been paid to the parties entitled to the same or has been deposited in the town treasury subject to their order; and the amount of such damages shall be paid by the town in which the bridge is located, as a part of the expense of building or maintaining such highway or bridge. All persons interested in such wharves or wharf privileges shall be entitled to all of the privileges by way of remonstrance and reestimate of damages which are provided in part III of this chapter for persons interested in laying out or altering a highway. This section shall not be construed to authorize the construction of a bridge without a draw over Branford River below Hobart's Bridge.

(1949 Rev., S. 2120; 1958 Rev., S. 13-5; 1963, P.A. 226, S. 112.)

History: 1963 act replaced previous provisions: See title history; (Revisor's note: In 2003 a reference to “chapter 238” was changed editorally by the Revisors to “this chapter”).