Effective 28 Aug 2018

227.240. Location and removal of public utility equipment — lines in right-of-way permitted — penalty for violation. — 1. The location and removal of all telephone, cable television, and electric light and power transmission lines, poles, wires, and conduits and all pipelines and tramways, erected or constructed, or hereafter to be erected or constructed by any corporation, municipality, public water supply district, sewer district, association or persons, within the right-of-way of any state highway, insofar as the public travel and traffic is concerned, and insofar as the same may interfere with the construction or maintenance of any such highway, shall be under the control and supervision of the state highways and transportation commission.

2. A cable television corporation or company shall be permitted to place its lines within the right-of-way of any state highway, consistent with the rules and regulations of the state highways and transportation commission. The state highways and transportation commission shall establish a system for receiving and resolving complaints with respect to cable television lines placed in, or removed from, the right-of-way of a state highway.

3. The department of transportation utility corridor established for the placement of utility facilities on the right-of-way of highways in the state highway system shall be up to twelve feet in width when space is reasonably available, with the location of the utility corridor to be determined by the state highways and transportation commission. The commission shall promulgate rules setting forth a standardized statewide system for requesting and issuing variances to requirements set forth in this section.

4. The commission or some officer selected by the commission shall serve a written notice upon the entity, person or corporation owning or maintaining any such lines, poles, wires, conduits, pipelines, or tramways, which notice shall contain a plan or chart indicating the places on the right-of-way at which such lines, poles, wires, conduits, pipelines or tramways may be maintained. The notice shall also state the time when the work of hard surfacing said roads is proposed to commence, and shall further state that a hearing shall be had upon the proposed plan of location and matters incidental thereto, giving the place and date of such hearing. Immediately after such hearing the said owner shall be given a notice of the findings and orders of the commission and shall be given a reasonable time thereafter to comply therewith; provided, however, that the effect of any change ordered by the commission shall not be to remove all or any part of such lines, poles, wires, conduits, pipelines or tramways from the right-of-way of the highway. The removal of the same shall be made at the cost and expense of the owners thereof unless otherwise provided by said commission, and in the event of the failure of such owners to remove the same at the time so determined they may be removed by the state highways and transportation commission, or under its direction, and the cost thereof collected from such owners, and such owners shall not be liable in any way to any person for the placing and maintaining of such lines, poles, wires, conduits, pipelines and tramways at the places prescribed by the commission.

5. The commission is authorized in the name of the state of Missouri to institute and maintain, through the attorney general, such suits and actions as may be necessary to enforce the provisions of this section. Any corporation, association or the officers or agents of such corporations or associations, or any other person who shall erect or maintain any such lines, poles, wires, conduits, pipelines or tramways, within the right-of-way of such roads which are hard-surfaced, which are not in accordance with such orders of the commission, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

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(RSMo 1939 § 8757, A.L. 2005 S.B. 237, A.L. 2006 H.B. 1149, A.L. 2018 S.B. 598 merged with S.B. 881)

Prior revision: 1929 § 8109