Town ways and highways may be laid out across, over or under any railroad track or through or across any land or right-of-way of any railroad corporation, if the Department of Transportation, after notice and hearing, so determines. The Department of Transportation may refuse its permission or grant permission on terms and conditions as it may prescribe, and the need, if any, for installation, maintenance and operation of signals, gates or other protective measures and may determine whether the expense of building and maintaining so much of the way as is within the limits of the railroad corporation shall be borne by the corporation or by the municipality in which the way is located or by the State, or the Department of Transportation may apportion the expense between the railroad corporation and the municipality or State. The expense of operating and maintaining any protective device shall be borne by the corporation operating the railroad. The expense of installing protective devices at crossings on state and state aid highways shall be apportioned between the railroad corporation and the State as the Department of Transportation shall determine. The expense of installing protective devices at crossings on town ways shall be apportioned between the railroad corporation and the municipality as the department shall determine. The Department of Transportation shall report its determinations and decisions, file the same in its principal office at Augusta and send copies by mail or otherwise to each of the parties subject to the determination, order or decision. Determinations, orders or decisions shall be final and binding on all parties unless an appeal from any determination, order or decision shall be taken to the Superior Court in the county where the crossing is located. The Department of Transportation shall be made a party in the appeal. The appellant shall, within 14 days from the date of the filing of the determination, order or decision, file in the office of the department its reasons for appeal and shall cause to be served on any other interested parties a copy of the reasons for appeal certified by the department. The presiding Justice shall make an order or decree on the appeal as law and justice may require. An appeal may be taken to the law court as in other actions. The final adjudication shall be recorded as provided in section 7204 and a copy of the final decision sent to the Department of Transportation. Costs may be taxed and allowed to either party at the discretion of the court. [PL 1989, c. 398, §8 (NEW).]
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