Neb. Rev. Stat. » Chapter 39
Nebraska Revised Statutes

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 (2026)

Roads; injuring or obstructing; penalties; exceptions

✓ current as of July 2026
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Any person who injures or obstructs a public road by felling a tree or trees in, upon, or across the same, by placing or leaving any other obstruction thereon, by encroaching upon the same with any fence, by plowing or digging any ditch or other opening thereon, by diverting water onto or across such road so as to saturate, wash, or impair the maintenance, construction, or passability of such public road, or by allowing water to accumulate on the roadway or traveled surface of the road or who leaves the cutting of any hedge thereupon for more than five days shall, upon conviction thereof, be guilty of a Class V misdemeanor and, in case of placing any obstruction on the road, be charged an additional sum of not exceeding three dollars per day for every day he or she allows such obstruction to remain after being ordered to remove the same by the road overseer or other officer in charge of road work in the area where such obstruction is located, complaint to be made by any person feeling aggrieved.

This section shall not apply to any person who lawfully fells any tree for use and will immediately remove the same out of the road nor to any person through whose land a public road may pass who desires to drain such land and gives due notice of such intention to the road overseer or other officer in charge of road work nor when damage has been caused by a mechanical malfunction of any irrigation equipment, when a sprinkler irrigation system had been set so that under normal weather conditions no water would have been placed upon the right-of-way of any road, when the county board grants permission for the landowner to divert water from one area to another along a county highway right-of-way, or when a municipality has granted permission along or across the right-of-way under its jurisdiction, except that if damage has been caused by a mechanical malfunction of irrigation equipment more than two times in one calendar year, the penalty provided in this section shall apply.

Any officer in charge of road work, after having given reasonable notice to the owners of the obstruction or person so obstructing or plowing or digging ditches upon such road, may remove any such fence or other obstruction, fill up any such ditch or excavation, and recover the necessary cost of such removal from such owner or other person obstructing such road, to be collected by such officer in an action in county court.

Any public roads which have not been worked and which have not been used or traveled by the public for the last fifteen years may be fenced by the owners of adjoining lands if written permission is first obtained from the county board of commissioners or supervisors and if adequate means of ingress and egress are provided by suitable gates.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2003–2021 · leading case: State v. Thelen, 305 Neb. 334 (Neb. 2020).
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State v. Thelen, 305 Neb. 334 (Neb. 2020). · cites it 21× “NATURE OF CASE The defendant landowner appeals from criminal misde- meanor convictions for violating Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 (Reissue 2016), by repeatedly erecting an electric fence approx- imately 3 feet from the edge of a county gravel roadway and within the county’s…”
Cnty. of Cedar v. Thelen, 305 Neb. 351 (Neb. 2020). · cites it 14× “The clear legislative intent in the regulatory scheme governing public roads, and in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 (Reissue 2016) specifically, is the protection of the public who use those roads.”
McClure v. Forsman, 662 N.W.2d 566 (Neb. 2003). · cites it 8× “The accident was investigated by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department, and Wilton was ticketed by the sheriff’s department for violating Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 (Reissue 1998), which prohibits, inter alia, “diverting water onto or across [a public] road so as to saturate,…”
State v. Childs, 309 Neb. 427 (Neb. 2021). · cites it 2× “Kimball County charged Kenneth with injury to a public road, in violation of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 (Reissue 2016), a Class V misdemeanor.”
State v. Grutell, 305 Neb. 843 (Neb. 2020). · cites it 2× “Thelen, 40 we recently held as a matter of statutory interpreta- tion that the ditch area within the county’s right-of-way is part of the “public road” for purposes of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 (Reissue 2016). We express no opinion regarding the appli- cability, if any, of the…”
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