Sec. 28. Public and municipally owned utilities are authorized to construct, operate, and maintain their poles, facilities, appliances, and fixtures upon, along, under, and across any of the public roads, highways, and waters outside of municipalities, as long as they do not interfere with the ordinary and normal public use of the roadway, as defined in IC 9-13-2-157. However, the utility shall review its plans with the county executive before locating the pole, facility, appliance, or fixture, and the county executive shall comply with IC 8-1-2-101. The utility may trim any tree along the road or highway, but may not cut down and remove the tree without the consent of the abutting property owners, unless the cutting or removal is required by rule or order of the Indiana utility regulatory commission. The utility may not locate a pole where it interferes with the ingress or egress from adjoining land.
Ind. Code § 8-20-1-28
Public and municipally owned utilities; poles, facilities, appliances, and fixtures
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Indiana Limestone Co. v. Staggs (1996)
Most recently applied in Carter v. Indianapolis Power & Light Co. (November 2005)
Formerly: Acts 1905, c.167, s.38; Acts 1911, c.161, s.1
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Indiana General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Indiana statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.