Massachusetts General Laws Part I. Administration of the Government (Ch. 1-182) Ch. 160, § 96

A railroad shall not be constructed across another railroad at the same level without the written consent of the department, nor across navigable or tide waters without the written consent of the department of highways, and in such manner as said departments, respectively, shall prescribe, nor across any portion of the deep channel of Boston harbor below the bridges existing on March thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, without special legislative authority. Any littoral proprietor whose access to the sea is obstructed or interrupted by the location and construction, after said date, of any railroad across tide water, otherwise than by a bridge with a suitable draw, may recover of the corporation whose railroad is so located all damages, caused by such location and construction, under chapter seventy-nine, but this provision as to damages shall not apply to any railroad constructed under chapter two hundred and fifty-two of the acts of eighteen hundred and eighty. Associates for the purpose of constructing a railroad under section thirteen, or a corporation which proceeds to construct its railroad or branch or extension thereof, shall not take proceedings which involve a new crossing of one railroad by another at the same level, unless such crossing is first approved in writing by the department; and every preliminary approval of a plan for such crossing shall be subject to revision by the department.