By: Perry S.B. No. 1338
(In the Senate - Filed March 11, 2015; March 18, 2015, read
first time and referred to Committee on Transportation;
April 23, 2015, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 23, 2015,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1338 By: Huffines
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to an exemption from length limitations for certain
vehicles or combinations of vehicles used to transport harvest
machines.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 622.902, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 622.902. LENGTH EXCEPTIONS. The length limitations
provided by Sections 621.203 to 621.205 do not apply to:
(1) machinery used exclusively for drilling water
wells, including machinery that is itself a unit or that is a unit
mounted on a conventional vehicle or chassis;
(2) a vehicle owned or operated by a public, private,
or volunteer fire department;
(3) a vehicle or combination of vehicles operated
exclusively in the territory of a municipality or to a combination
of vehicles operated by a municipality in a suburb adjoining the
municipality in which the municipality has been using the equipment
or similar equipment in connection with an established service to
the suburb;
(4) a truck-tractor, truck-tractor combination, or
truck-trailer combination exclusively transporting machinery,
materials, and equipment used in the construction, operation, and
maintenance of facilities, including pipelines, that are used for
the discovery, production, and processing of natural gas or
petroleum;
(5) a drive-away saddlemount vehicle transporter
combination or a drive-away saddlemount with fullmount vehicle
transporter combination, as defined by 23 C.F.R. Part 658 or its
successor, if:
(A) the overall length of the combination is not
longer than 97 feet; and
(B) the combination does not have more than three
saddlemounted vehicles if the combination does not include more
than one fullmount vehicle;
(6) the combination of a tow truck and another vehicle
or vehicle combination if:
(A) the other vehicle or vehicle combination
cannot be normally or safely driven or was abandoned on a highway;
and
(B) the tow truck is towing the other vehicle or
vehicle combination directly to the nearest authorized place of
repair, terminal, or destination of unloading; [or]
(7) a vehicle or combination of vehicles used to
transport a harvest machine [combine] that is used in farm custom
harvesting operations on a farm if the overall length of the vehicle
or combination is not longer than:
(A) 75 feet if the vehicle is traveling on a
highway that is part of the national system of interstate and
defense highways or the federal aid primary highway system; or
(B) 81-1/2 feet if the vehicle is not traveling
on a highway that is part of the national system of interstate and
defense highways or the federal aid primary highway system; or
(8) a truck-tractor operated in combination with a
semitrailer and trailer or semitrailer and semitrailer if:
(A) the combination is used to transport a
harvest machine that is used in farm custom harvesting operations
on a farm;
(B) the overall length of the combination,
excluding the length of the truck-tractor, is not longer than
81-1/2 feet; and
(C) the combination is traveling on a highway
that:
(i) is not part of the national system of
interstate and defense highways or the federal aid primary highway
system; and
(ii) is located in a county with a
population of less than 50,000.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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