§273-3  Special powers.  For the purposes and subject to the provisions and restrictions of this chapter, the corporation, from time to time, may exercise any of the following powers:

     (1)  It may enter upon any lands that may adjoin upon the line of any railway that may be authorized by charter to be made, and may bore, dig, cut, trench, embank, and drain, and may remove or lay, take, carry away, and use any earth, gravel, stone, timber, or other things dug or obtained therein or otherwise in the execution of any powers hereafter in this chapter given, and that may be proper for the making, maintaining, altering, repairing, or using of any railway lawfully authorized, or that may obstruct the making, maintaining, altering, repairing, or using of the same;

     (2)  It may make, in, upon, across, under, or over any such lands, or any street, roads, ways, railroads, tramways, hills, valleys, rivers, canals, watercourses, or waters, any temporary or permanent inclined planes, tunnels, cuttings, embankments, aqueducts, bridges, roads, ways, passages, conduits, drains, piers, arches, fences, and other work and conveniences as the corporation thinks proper;

     (3)  It may alter the course of any rivers not navigable, canals, brooks, streams, or watercourses during any times as is necessary for constructing or maintaining tunnels, bridges, or other works over, under, or affecting the same; and may temporarily or permanently alter the course of any rivers or streams, or raise or sink the level of any rivers or streams, streets, roads, or ways, to carry more conveniently the same over or under or by the side of any railway;

     (4)  It may make drains or conduits into, through, or under any lands adjoining the railway for the purpose of conveying water from or to the railway, and upon the railway, or any lands adjoining or near thereto;

     (5)  It may make piers, jetties, stations, sidings, wharves, warehouses, tollhouses, and other houses, yards, engines, machinery, signal posts, and other apparatus, works, and conveniences whatsoever connected with the railway as the corporation may think proper, and may from time to time alter, repair, or discontinue any apparatus, works, and conveniences, and substitute others in their stead;

     (6)  It may fell or remove any timber or other trees being within two hundred feet from either side of the railway that, by their liability to fall or otherwise, might obstruct or injure the railway;

     (7)  It may also fell or cut down and remove any trees or wood, whether timber or other trees, or scrub or underwood, that, by reason of the line making a curve or otherwise, may obstruct or impede a view of any signal post from any portion of the line within one mile in a right line from any signal post;

     (8)  It may enter upon and use any existing private road, being a road graveled or formed with stones or other hard material, and not being an avenue or approach to any dwelling house;

     (9)  It may enter upon and take, purchase, and hold all lands, tenements, and hereditaments as may be required for the purposes of the railway and works connected therewith; and

    (10)  It may do all other things necessary or convenient for making, maintaining, altering, or repairing and using the railway.

     Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize any corporation to enter upon or take any tidewaters, nor in any way to hinder, obstruct, or interfere with navigation in or upon any public navigable waters, nor to erect, build, or maintain any pier, jetty, or wharf in, upon, or over any harbor, bay, or river beyond high watermark. [L 1878, c 29, §3; am L 1898, c 52, §1; RL 1925, §879; RL 1935, §1785; RL 1945, §5043; RL 1955, §106-3; HRS §273-3; am L 2020, c 70, §24]

Case Notes

  Wharves and warehouses are fairly necessary for reasonable operation of the road.  14 H. 126 (1902).

  Cited:  20 H. 122 (1910).