Any person or persons, corporation or company, owning or constructing any ditch, raise, drain, flume, in, upon or across any highway shall keep the highway open for safe and convenient travel, by constructing bridges over such ditch, raise, drain or flume, or by providing other safe and convenient way across or around the said ditch; and within five days after any ditch is constructed across, in or upon any highway, at any point thereof, so as to interfere with or obstruct such highway, the person or persons owning or constructing such ditch shall erect a good and substantial bridge across the same, which shall thereafter be maintained by the county. Any person or persons, corporation or company constructing any ditch, raise, drain, flume, in, upon or across any highway, and failing to keep the highway open for safe and convenient travel, shall forfeit the sum of twenty-five dollars [($25.00)] to the county. And any person or persons, corporation or company, who shall fail to erect a good, substantial bridge across any ditch, raise, drain or flume within five days after the same is constructed in, upon or across any highway, shall forfeit the sum of twenty-five dollars [($25.00)] to the county, together with the cost of constructing there a good and substantial bridge which the county road board shall at once proceed to build, and shall also be liable in damages to any person or persons damaged by such neglect.
NMS § 67-7-9