OT: Think I see a battle coming with my road commissioner.

Rod

In my neck of the woods, the county will supply and install one appropriate culvert for access to each piece of property. For any additional ones, you're on your own.

If I was you, I think I'd just go buy a culvert and quit while I was ahead. Fighting the county would cause you more expense and aggravation than the cost of a culvert.

Pay for the culvert and be done with it.

The bright side to this is that once you pay to have the entrance installed, THEY, forever more are responsible to maintain it. The size of the pipe and all other specs are also recorded on file, but basically, if they come and want to replace a 25 foot pipe with a 20 footer, you argue with them and YOU will win. I find that just about everything regarding the local highways department here now requires a fight because they will try to cheap out or dump the cost on anyone they can, every single time. Once they realize that you are more fight than a few hundred bucks of budget are worth, they give in and do what they're SUPPOSED to do.

Check your local laws and see what they are required to do, and hold them to it. Otherwise they're going to walk all over you.

Rod

I worked on many such issues here in New York. Here - public highway law says once a culvert has been used for 7 years for highway purposes -it's done deal, regardless of problems that come along with it. In my area, I am required to furnish the cost of materials for all culverts needed for any driveways I touch the public highway - and I own the highway! That's kind of adds insult to injury since I own the entire road - but ownership or not - it is still a public highway that runs "over" my land. The town has to install the culverts - I just have to pay for the corrugated pipe. The reality is - I don't trust the town to do it correctly and always put them in myself.

I will tell you this. You might want to find out what sort of right-of-way the town actually has - and who actually owns the road. A town must report every year - to the county government an inventory of roads. That inventory is supposed to show each road the town claims as a public highway and gives exact measurements and widths of right-of-ways. See what it says.

Also keep this in mind. Many highway supervisors claim some set footage for width - usually something like 66 feet wide - of right-of-way. Sounds fine and usually goes unchallenged. It is also often NOT true. Again - ask the town how the road became a highway. Likely they won't have a clue. Most became public highways by public use over time - not by deed. These are legally known as "highways by prescription." Technically, in most states - that means the town has no right-of-way beyond what is being used - period. No right to widen extra feet for new culverts, no rights to go in an remove trees, etc. But - many to most property owners don't know this - and subsequently many towns do whatever they want. Here in New York - once the town does anything to the road - and it goes unchallenged for 7 years - it's a done deal and can no longer be questioned.