All rights of action on account of the insufficiency or want of repair of any bridge or culvert on the highways taken over by the state shall exist against the state and not against the town, provided that the notice required in sections 987 and 988 of this title is first given in writing to the agency and provided further that liability shall be the same as set forth in section 985 of this title. (Added 1985, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)