New Mexico § 67-8-18 - State pays certain relocation costs

§ 67-8-18. State pays certain relocation costs

A. In the following types of utility relocation ordered by the commission pursuant

to Section 3A it shall either, as it elects, undertake the relocation work on behalf

of the state, paying the cost of relocation, or reimburse the utility for the cost

of relocation: (1) relocations necessitated by improvements of public highways in the interstate

system, including extensions thereof within urban areas; and (2) relocations by complete removal and construction of facilities off the public

highway. The commission is authorized upon notice and opportunity for hearing to find and determine

in relocations hereunder the cost of relocation, and the same shall, to the extent

authorized herein, be borne by the state as other highway construction costs. The commission is authorized to make rules and regulations with respect to the advancement

and/or payment from time to time of funds by utilities to insure that the state shall

never advance nor pay any costs which it is not authorized by law to pay, including

rules and regulations with respect to the proper determination of cost of relocation

payable or reimbursable by the state, to aid the commission in carrying out the intention

of this act; and this provision shall be cumulative of other authority possessed

by the commission to promulgate rules and regulations. B. Exceptions: (1) the cost of relocation from which a utility would be otherwise relieved pursuant

to Subparagraph A(1) above shall nevertheless be borne in full by the utility in any

of the following cases, without reimbursement from the state: (a) in case of a privately owned utility which is obligated, or to the extent it is

obligated by valid, written contract with the state to make such relocation when called

for by the state without cost to the latter; (b) in case the utility line was initially installed, or for the distance to which

it was installed, under a valid statute or regulation applicable thereto and providing

that relocation should be effected by the owner thereof at the latter's expense; (c) in case of relocation of a utility facility not municipally owned for which local

municipal or county government authorization, if required by law, had not been granted; (d) in case the utility shall after effectiveness of this act agree for a valid consideration

to effect the relocation at its expense under the terms of such agreement; or (e) in case of any required relocation with respect to which the commission shall

determine that the utility failed without just cause to make or suffer such relocation

in the reasonable manner and time as prescribed by the commission. C. The commission shall make no reimbursement payment to a utility to which it is

otherwise entitled pursuant to Subsection A above unless and until the commission

is satisfied that relocation has been fully completed in accordance with the commission's

requirements; and the commission shall in no event make reimbursement of any cost

otherwise due under Subsection A above which it finds, after notice and hearing, to

have been unnecessarily, negligently or improvidently incurred by the utility. D. To insure that the state shall never pay any cost of relocation necessitated by

improvement in the interstate system for which it cannot receive proportionate reimbursement

under the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act, 1 as amended, if upon final determination by the United States bureau of public roads

of the cost of relocation of a utility relocation necessitated by the construction

or improvement of a public highway in the interstate system, the bureau of public

roads shall finally determine the cost of relocation to be not reimbursable to the

state from federal funds or to be less than the amount reimbursed to the utility by

the commission, the utility so reimbursed shall repay to the commission the difference

between the amount so reimbursed to the utility and the cost of relocation finally

determined by the bureau of public roads. 1

See 23 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq.