Whenever the construction of an interstate, controlled-access highway, results in the removal from the state highway system, a highway which passes through or approaches within one mile [1.61 kilometers] of any incorporated municipality, the director may if conditions warrant, expend state highway funds to the extent of not over twenty-five percent of the cost to construct access routes on the federal aid secondary county system. Only such access routes may be constructed as are not over three miles [4.83 kilometers] in length and are necessary to provide as good or better access from such municipalities to the network of the state highway system, as existed prior to the construction of such interstate highway.

Such access routes may be constructed from the municipal limits to the interstate highway or in such other locations as will, in the opinion of the director, comply with the intent of the provisions of sections 24-01-47 and 24-01-48.