Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XIV Chapter 83
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 83, § 4 (2026)

Highway ditches or drains

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 4. The department of highways, county commissioners, and the officers having charge of highways in any city or town may construct ditches or drains for the purpose of properly draining any highway, and may carry water away from any highway and over or through any land as they may deem necessary for public convenience or for the proper care or construction of such highway, and may purchase or take by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, on behalf of the commonwealth, county, city or town, such land or interest therein as may be necessary therefor. Such ditches and drains shall be under the control of said officials, who may enter upon any land for the purpose of constructing, repairing or maintaining the same; but they shall not enter upon or construct any ditches, drains or other works or lay any conduits or pipes or discharge any water within the location of any railroad corporation, except at such time and in such manner as they may agree upon with such corporation, or, in case of failure so to agree, as may be approved by the department of telecommunications and energy. The owner or occupant of land through which any ditch or drain has been constructed under this section may, after securing a permit from the officers having control of the ditch or drain, construct and maintain a bridge over the same. The damages sustained by any person in his property by takings or other acts herein authorized may be recovered under chapter seventy-nine. The department, board or officers who have taken an easement under this section may discontinue or abandon the same by filing for record in the registry of deeds a suitable instrument.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1979–1982 · leading case: McSorley v. Town of Hancock, 417 N.E.2d 982 (Mass. App. Ct. 1981).
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McSorley v. Town of Hancock, 417 N.E.2d 982 (Mass. App. Ct. 1981). “Other matters. The plaintiff is, therefore, not barred, 10 and is entitled to compensation for the second taking and the reconstruction project as authorized by statute.”
Triangle Ctr., Inc. v. Dep't of Pub. Works, 438 N.E.2d 798 (Mass. 1982). “Neither does G. L. c. 83, § 4, provide the necessary authority.”
Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield v. Commonwealth, 392 N.E.2d 829 (Mass. 1979). “4 Similarly, it is not now open to the Commonwealth to argue that G. L. c. 83, § 4, limits its liability in the present circumstances, that the drainage easement had no relationship to Route 291, or that the statute of limitations had run on the petitioner’s claim for noise…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.