An individual, partnership, association, corporation, municipal corporation or state or any political subdivision thereof engaged in or preparing to engage in the manufacture, transportation, or storage of any product to be used in the preparation of the United States or any of the states for defense or for war or in the prosecution of war by the United States, or in the manufacture, transportation, distribution, or storage of gas, oil, coal, electricity, or water, or any of such natural or artificial persons operating any public utility, who has property so used that he or she or it believes will be endangered if public use and travel is not restricted or prohibited on one or more highways or parts thereof upon which such property abuts, may petition the road commissioners of any city, town, or county to close one or more of such highways or parts thereof to public use and travel or to restrict by order the use and travel upon one or more of such highways or parts thereof.