When an application is pending before the Superior Court for the laying out or alteration of any highway, any person interested therein may execute a penal bond with surety, payable to the defendant town or towns, conditioned that the obligors will, for a specified sum, make or alter such highway in a specified time and manner, constructed and graded to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Transportation, or convey to such town or towns the right-of-way therefor; which bond shall be executed by persons owning real estate in fee simple, situated in this state, in value double the amount of the penal sum in such bond, and shall be binding upon the obligors therein to the full amount of such penal sum, as liquidated damages; and the committee may receive and hold it until it reports its doings to said court, and regard it as evidence in determining the expense of constructing or altering such highway; and, if it reports favorably upon such application, it shall deliver such bond to such town or towns, otherwise to the obligor as therein named. In an action on such a bond payable to several towns, they may join and the court shall determine the amount to be paid to each. When any highway has been so constructed in whole or in part, no money for labor thereon shall be paid, unless with the approval of the selectmen of the town, or unless such road has been constructed and graded to the satisfaction of the commissioner.