WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2024 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

House Bill 4942

By Delegates E. Pritt, Linville, Brooks, and Cannon

[Introduced January 19, 2024; Referred to the Committee on Technology and Infrastructure]

A BILL to amend and reenact §17C-17-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to prohibiting a vehicle or combination of vehicles coupled together, whose length is in excess of 50 feet from travelling on Route 61 between Oak Hill and Montgomery.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 17. SIZE, WEIGHT AND LOAD.

§17C-17-4. Height and length of vehicles and loads.

(a) A vehicle, including any load thereon, may not exceed a height of 13 feet six inches, but the owner or owners of such vehicles shall be responsible for damage to any bridge or highway structure and to municipalities for any damage to traffic control devices or other highway structures where such bridges, devices or structures have a vehicle clearance of less than 13 feet six inches.

(b) A motor vehicle, including any load thereon, may not exceed a length of 40 feet extreme overall dimension, inclusive of front and rear bumpers: Provided, That a motor home and a school bus may not exceed a length of 45 feet, exclusive of front and rear bumpers.

(c) Except as hereinafter provided in this subsection or in subsection (d) of this section, a combination of vehicles coupled together may not consist of more than two units and no combination of vehicles including any load thereon shall have an overall length, inclusive of front and rear bumpers, in excess of 55 feet except as provided in §17C-17-11b of this code and except as otherwise provided in respect to the use of a pole trailer as authorized in §17C-17-5 of this code. The limitation that a combination of vehicles coupled together may not consist of more than two units may not apply to: (1) A combination of vehicles coupled together by a saddle-mount device used to transport motor vehicles in a drive-away service when no more than three saddle mounts are used, if equipment used in the combination meets the requirements of the safety regulations of the United States Department of Transportation and may not exceed an overall length of more than 75 feet; or (2) a combination of vehicles coupled together, one of which is a travel trailer or folding camping trailer having an overall length, exclusive of front and rear bumpers, not exceeding 65 feet.

(d) A combination of two vehicles coupled together, one of which is a motor home, or a combination of vehicles coupled together, one of which is a travel trailer or folding camping trailer, may not exceed an overall length, exclusive of front and rear bumpers of 65 feet.

(e) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a), (b), (c) and (d) of this section, the commissioner may designate, upon his or her own motion or upon the petition of an interested party, a combination vehicle length not to exceed 70 feet.

(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other subsection of this section, no vehicle or combination of vehicles coupled together, whose length is in excess of 50 feet may travel on Route 61 between Oak Hill and Montgomery.

(g) The length limitations for truck tractor-semitrailer combinations and truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer combinations operating on the national system of interstate and defense highways and those classes of qualifying federal-aid primary system highways so designated by the United States secretary of transportation and those highways providing reasonable access to and from terminals, facilities for food, fuel, repairs and rest and points of loading and unloading for household goods carriers from such highways and further, as to other highways so designated by the West Virginia commissioner of highways, shall be as follows: The maximum length of a semitrailer unit operating in a truck tractor-semitrailer combination shall may not exceed 48 feet in length except where semitrailers have an axle spacing of not more than thirty-seven feet between the rear axle of the truck tractor and the front axle of the semitrailer, such semitrailer shall be allowed to be not more than 53 feet in length and the maximum length of any semitrailer or trailer operating in a truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer combination may not exceed 28 feet in length and in no event shall may any combinations exceed three units, including the truck tractor: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall impose an overall length limitation as to commercial motor vehicles operating in truck tractor-semitrailer or truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer combinations.

(g) The commissioner shall publish annually an official map designating the highways of the state and the various maximum vehicle lengths relating thereto.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit a vehicle or combination of vehicles coupled together, whose length is in excess of 50 feet travelling on Route 61 between Oak Hill and Montgomery.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.