(a) The department is authorized to pay or participate in the payment of the costs of removing and relocating any of the following facilities or any component part thereof if they are owned by a municipal corporation, county, state agency, or by an authority created under the laws of Georgia pertaining to public utilities, without regard to whether such facilities were originally installed upon rights of way of the state highway system or a county road system or a municipal street system, where such removal and relocation is made necessary by the construction or maintenance of any public road by the department: water distribution and sanitary sewer facilities and systems for producing, transmitting, or distributing communications, power, electricity, light, heat, gas, steam, waste, and storm water not connected with highway drainage, including fire and police signals, traffic-control devices, and street lighting systems.

(b) As to municipal corporations, counties, state agencies, and authorities controlled by such municipal corporations, counties, or other state agencies, the department is authorized to waive provisions in existing permits and agreements in conflict with this article.

(c) The costs of removing and relocating the facilities listed in subsection (a) of this Code section, which costs the department is authorized to pay or participate in by this Code section, shall be limited to the costs of removing and relocating those facilities which are physically in place and in conflict with proposed construction and, where replacement is necessary, to the costs of replacement in kind. That proportion of the costs representing improvement or betterment in a facility shall be excluded from the costs eligible for payment or participation by the department under this Code section, except to the extent that such improvement or betterment is made necessary by the public road construction or maintenance.

(d) All costs incurred by the department under this Code section shall be deemed to be a part of the costs of the project requiring removal and relocation of any of the facilities listed in subsection (a) of this Code section.