If application is made to the commissioners by a town, or by five inhabitants thereof, to relocate or order specific repairs on a way within such town, whether it was laid out by authority of the town or otherwise, they may, either for the purpose of establishing the boundary lines of such way or of making alterations in the course or width thereof, or of making specific repairs thereon, relocate it in the manner prescribed for laying out highways in sections two to nine, inclusive. The expense shall be assessed upon the petitioners or upon the county or town, or upon the land benefited by the improvement under chapter eighty, as the commissioners may order. The commissioners may, without petition, after giving notice as provided in section three, relocate any public way for the purpose of establishing its boundaries, or of making specific repairs thereon, in which case no part of the expense shall be assessed upon the town.
The commissioners may adjudicate and decree in respect to a portion of a way described in a petition pending before them, leaving the petition open pending a further or final adjudication and decree in respect to a further portion of said way or a final adjudication and decree as to the remainder of such way.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 82, § 11