(a) The commissioner may by order, after notice and hearing, provide for the relocation of utility facilities within a public highway, including, if required, the entire removal from the public highway of certain facilities except as necessary to serve abutting premises or as necessary to cross the highway, and may require any utility as defined in § 54-5-802 to make or suffer the specified relocation, upon a finding that the action provided for is necessitated by highway improvement determined by the commissioner as a matter of policy relating to the design, construction, location and maintenance of public highways. The commissioner shall direct and control the reasonable manner and time of effecting the relocation so as to promote the public interest in the highway improvement without undue cost or risk and without impairment of utility service, whether the commissioner undertakes the relocation on behalf of the state or requires the utility to perform the relocation. If undertaken by the commissioner, the commissioner may contract the relocation work.

(b) The obligations of the utility, as defined in § 54-5-802, shall be to make or suffer relocation required by the commissioner, and to relocate cooperatively and in the reasonable manner and time as prescribed by the commissioner, and to advance and pay all costs incurred in effecting relocation that the state is not authorized to pay under this part or otherwise by law. It shall not be grounds for delay in relocation that a dispute exists over the cost of relocation or the method of paying or sharing the cost.

(c) The commissioner is authorized to enter into an agreement with a utility as defined in § 54-5-802 with respect to any relocation, the time and manner of its accomplishment and the payment and sharing of the cost incurred in effecting relocation, all upon reasonable terms and conditions that the commissioner approves as necessary or appropriate in the interest of a public highway program in this state. No notice, hearing or other proceeding under this part shall be required.