In any proceeding under Section 1202, where the application to the commission states that the parties are not in agreement as to apportionment of costs, but the applicant is willing to advance the amount of money reasonably necessary to enable the respondent to complete the work to be done by it, the commission shall set the application for hearing as soon as its calendar permits on all of the following questions:
(a) The necessity for the project.
(b) The approval of the location and the engineering plans, including provisions for handling traffic during construction and the work to be performed by each party.
(c) The sum to be advanced by the applicant for the work to be done by the respondent. The commission shall render as promptly as possible an interim decision effective within 20 days on the questions, reserving for a later hearing and decision the question of apportionment of costs. The decision shall also order the respondent to proceed upon receipt of the sum to be advanced by the applicant without delay to perform the work to be done by the respondent, integrating the work with that of the applicant or its contractor in such manner that neither will unreasonably obstruct or delay the work of the other, to the end that the people of the state may have the use of the project at the earliest possible date.
In the event of the failure or refusal of the respondent to grant a right of entry to permit the applicant to proceed with the work to be performed by it or its contractor, the applicant may, pursuant to Section 19 of Article I of the Constitution, obtain an order of immediate possession in a court of competent jurisdiction if a condemnation action has previously been filed in that court, or file the action and obtain an order of immediate possession in the event the action has not previously been filed. Upon obtaining the order, the applicant may proceed in the same manner as if a right of entry had been granted, and the respondent shall proceed with its own work and integrate it with that of the applicant or its contractor.
In the final decision apportioning costs, the commission shall credit the sum advanced by the applicant against the applicant’s share of the costs. In the final decision, the commission shall also credit against the applicant’s share of the costs any increases in those costs found by the commission to be directly attributable to the respondent’s willful failure or refusal, after the effective date of the interim decision, to proceed with its own work or to integrate its work with that of the applicant or its contractor.
(Amended by Stats. 1984, Ch. 144, Sec. 167.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018