2017 Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 66. General municipality law.
66.0831 Interference with public service structure.
66.0831 Interference with public service structure. A contractor with a contract for work upon, over, along or under a public street or highway may not interfere with, destroy or disturb the structures of a public utility, including a telecommunications carrier as defined in s. 196.01 (8m), encountered in the performance of the work in a manner that interrupts, impairs or affects the public service for which the structures may be used, without first obtaining written authority from the commissioner of public works or other appropriate authority. A public utility, if given reasonable notice by the contractor of the need for temporary protection of, or a temporary change in, the utility's structures, determined by the commissioner of public works or other appropriate authority to be reasonably necessary to enable the work, shall temporarily protect or change its structures located upon, over, along or under the surface of a public street or highway. The contractor shall pay or assure to the public utility the reasonable cost of the temporary structure or change, unless the public utility is otherwise liable. If work is done by or for the state or by or for any county, city, village, town sanitary district, metropolitan sewerage district created under ss. 200.01 to 200.15 or 200.21 to 200.65 or town, the cost of the temporary protection or temporary change shall be borne by the public utility.
Interference without written authority is prohibited only if the parties cannot agree that requested changes are reasonably necessary. A town sanitary district is not a town under the cost provision of this section. Wisconsin Gas Co. v. Lawrenz & Associates, 72 Wis. 2d 389, 241 N.W.2d 384 (1976).
