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1997 SESSION


CHAPTER 773
An Act to amend and reenact §§ 46.2-1109 and 46.2-1112 of the Code of Virginia, relating to width and length of certain vehicles.
[S 640]
Approved April 2, 1997

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 46.2-1109 and 46.2-1112 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 46.2-1109. Widths of commercial vehicles.

No commercial vehicle shall exceed 102 inches in width when operating on any interstate highway or on any highway designated by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. The width limitation in this section shall not include rear view mirrors, turn signal lights, handholds for cab entry and egress, splash suppressant devices, and load-induced tire bulge. Safety devices, with the exception of rear view mirrors, shall not extend more than three inches on each side of a vehicle. The Commonwealth Transportation Board shall designate reasonable access to terminals, facilities for food, fuel, repairs, and rest. Household goods carriers and any tractor truck semitrailer combination in which the semitrailer has a length of no more than twenty-eight and one-half feet shall not be denied reasonable access to points of loading and unloading, except as designated, based on safety considerations, by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. No reasonable access designation shall be made, however, until notice of any proposed designation has been provided by the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner to the governing body of every locality wherein any highway affected by the proposed designation is located.

For the purposes of this section, a commercial vehicle is defined as a loaded or empty motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer designed or regularly used for carrying freight, merchandise, or more than ten passengers, including buses, but not including vehicles used for vanpools.

§ 46.2-1112. Length of vehicles, generally; special permits; tractor truck semitrailer combinations, etc., operating on certain highways.

Except for buses, no motor vehicle longer than forty feet shall be operated on any highway in the Commonwealth. The actual length of any combination of vehicles coupled together including any load thereon shall not exceed a total of sixty-five feet. No bus longer than forty-five feet shall be operated on any highway in the Commonwealth. No tolerance shall be allowed that exceeds twelve inches.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board, however, when good cause is shown, may issue a special permit for combinations either in excess of sixty-five feet, including any load thereon, or where the object or objects to be carried cannot be moved otherwise. Such permits may also be issued by the Board when the total number of otherwise overdimensional loads of modular housing of no more than two units may be reduced by permitting the use of an overlength trailer not exceeding fifty-four feet.

No overall length restrictions, however, shall be imposed on any tractor truck semitrailer combinations drawing one trailer or any tractor truck semitrailer combinations when operated on any interstate highway or on any highway as designated by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. No such designation shall be made, however, until notice of any proposed designation has been provided by the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner to the governing body of every locality wherein any highway affected by the proposed designation is located.

No individual semitrailer or trailer being drawn in a tractor truck semitrailer trailer combination, however, shall exceed twenty-eight and one-half feet in length, and no semitrailer being operated in a tractor truck semitrailer combination shall exceed forty-eight feet in length, except when semitrailers have a distance of not more than forty-one feet between the kingpin of the semitrailer and the rearmost axle or a point midway between the rear tandem axles, such semitrailer shall be allowed not more than fifty-three feet in length.

The length limitations on semitrailers and trailers in the foregoing provisions of this section shall be exclusive of safety and energy conservation devices, steps and handholds for entry and egress, rubber dock guards, flexible fender extensions, mudflaps, refrigeration units, and air compressors. The Commonwealth Transportation Board shall designate reasonable access to terminals, facilities for food, fuel, repairs and rest. Household goods carriers and any tractor truck semitrailer combination in which the semitrailer has a length of no more than twenty-eight and one-half feet shall not be denied reasonable access to points of loading and unloading, except as designated, based on safety considerations, by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.