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TO AMEND SECTION 56-5-4070, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO MAXIMUM LENGTHS OF VEHICLES THAT MAY BE OPERATED ALONG THE STATE'S HIGHWAYS, SO AS TO PROVIDE A MAXIMUM LENGTH FOR TRAILERS OR SEMITRAILERS USED TO TRANSPORT VEHICLES USED IN CONNECTION WITH MOTORSPORTS COMPETITION EVENTS; TO AMEND SECTION 56-5-4130, RELATING TO THE MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT UPON ANY WHEEL OF CERTAIN VEHICLES ALLOWED TO OPERATE ALONG THE HIGHWAYS OF THIS STATE, SO AS TO PROVIDE AN OVER-THE-ROAD BUS, MOTORHOME, OR CERTAIN VEHICLES USED AS INTRASTATE PUBLIC AGENCY TRANSIT PASSENGER BUSES ARE EXCLUDED FROM AXLE SPACING REQUIREMENTS BUT ARE LIMITED TO A MAXIMUM SINGLE AXLE WEIGHT LIMIT, AND TO PROVIDE THAT THESE VEHICLES MUST HAVE REASONABLE ACCESS TO CERTAIN HIGHWAY FACILITIES; TO AMEND SECTION 56-5-4140, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT OF VEHICLES ALLOWED TO OPERATE ALONG THE STATE'S HIGHWAYS, SO AS TO MAKE TECHNICAL CHANGES, AND TO PROVIDE THAT AN OVER-THE-ROAD BUS, MOTORHOME, OR CERTAIN VEHICLES USED AS INTRASTATE PUBLIC AGENCY TRANSIT PASSENGER BUSES ARE EXCLUDED FROM CERTAIN AXLE SPACING REQUIREMENTS BUT ARE LIMITED TO A MAXIMUM SINGLE AXLE WEIGHT LIMIT, AND TO PROVIDE THAT THESE VEHICLES MUST HAVE REASONABLE ACCESS TO CERTAIN HIGHWAY FACILITIES; TO AMEND SECTION 56-5-4160, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE ENFORCEMENT OF PROVISIONS THAT ESTABLISH WEIGHT LIMITS FOR VEHICLES THAT OPERATE ALONG THE STATE'S HIGHWAYS, SO AS TO REVISE THE MAXIMUM WEIGHT LIMIT ALLOWED FOR A VEHICLE OR COMBINATION OF VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH AN IDLE REDUCTION SYSTEM; AND TO AMEND SECTION 56-35-30, RELATING TO VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH AUXILIARY POWER UNITS, SO AS TO REVISE THE ALLOWABLE GROSS WEIGHT OF THE VEHICLE USED TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE VEHICLE HAS VIOLATED PROVISIONS RELATING TO VEHICLE WEIGHT RESTRICTIONS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 56-5-4070(A)(1) of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"(1) No trailer or semitrailer may be operated in a two unit truck tractor-trailer or truck tractor-semitrailer combination in excess of fifty-three feet, inclusive of the load carried on it. A fifty-three foot long trailer must be equipped with a rear underride guard, and the distance between the kingpin of the vehicle and the center of the rear axle assembly or to the center of the tandem axle assembly if equipped with two axles may be no greater than forty-one feet. However, trailers or semitrailers used exclusively or primarily to transport vehicles used in connection with motorsports competition events may not exceed forty-six feet on this distance measured from the kingpin to the center of the rear axle."
SECTION 2. Section 56-5-4130 of the 1976 Code, is amended to read:
"Section 56-5-4130. (A)(1) The gross weight upon any wheel of a vehicle shall not exceed eight thousand pounds when equipped with high-pressure pneumatic, solid rubber or cushion tires, nor ten thousand pounds when equipped with low-pressure pneumatic tires. The gross weight upon any one axle of a vehicle shall not exceed sixteen thousand pounds when equipped with high-pressure pneumatic, solid rubber or cushion tires, nor twenty thousand pounds when equipped with low-pressure pneumatic tires.
(2) On the interstate highways of this State, any over-the-road bus as defined by Title 49 of the United States Code, motorhome, or any vehicle which is regularly and exclusively used as an intrastate public agency transit passenger bus as defined by Title 49 of the United States Code, is excluded from the axle weight limits in item (1). However, these vehicles are limited to a maximum single axle weight limit of twenty four thousand pounds including all enforcement tolerances. Nothing in this section is intended to prohibit reasonable access to the national network and terminals and facilities for food, fuel, repairs, and rest.
(B) For the purpose of this section an 'axle load' shall be defined as the total load transmitted to the road by all wheels whose centers may be included between two parallel transverse vertical planes forty inches apart, extending across the full width of the vehicle, every pneumatic tire designed for use and used when inflated with air to less than one hundred pounds pressure shall be deemed a 'low-pressure tire' and every pneumatic tire inflated to one hundred pounds pressure or more shall be deemed a 'high-pressure tire'."
SECTION 3. Section 56-5-4140 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 60 of 2009, is further amended to read:
"Section 56-5-4140. (A)(1) The gross weight of a vehicle or combination of vehicles, operated or moved upon any interstate, highway, or section of highway, including the interstate highway system, except where the formula in item (4) allows a higher weight, shall not exceed:
(The following weight limits do not include applicable tolerances)
(a) Single-unit vehicle with two axles......35,000 lbs.
(b) Single-unit vehicle with three axles......46,000 lbs.
(c) Single-unit vehicle with four axle 63,500 lbs., except Except, on the interstate, vehicles must meet axle spacing requirements and corresponding maximum overall gross weights, not to exceed 63,500 lbs., in accordance with the table in (b) plus tolerances item (4).
(d) Single-unit vehicle with five or more axles...65,000 lbs.,
except Except, on the interstate, vehicles must meet axle spacing requirements and corresponding maximum overall gross weights, not to exceed 65,000 lbs., in accordance with the table in (b) plus tolerances subitem item (4).
(e) Combination of vehicles with three axles......50,000 lbs.
(f) Combination of vehicles with four axles...... 65,000 lbs.
(g) Combination of vehicles with five or more axles... 73,280 lbs.
The gross weight imposed upon any highway or section of highway other than the interstate by two or more consecutive axles in tandem articulated from a common attachment to the vehicle and spaced not less than forty inches nor more than ninety-six inches apart shall not exceed thirty-six thousand pounds, and no one axle of any such group of two or more consecutive axles shall exceed the load permitted for a single axle. The load imposed on the highway by two consecutive axles, individually attached to the vehicle and spaced not less than forty inches nor more than ninety-six inches apart, shall not exceed thirty-six thousand pounds and no one axle of any such group of two consecutive axles shall exceed the load permitted for a single axle.
The ten percent enforcement tolerance specified in Section 56-5-4160 applies to the vehicle weight limits specified in this section item (1), and subsections (B) and (C). However, the gross weight on a single axle operated on the interstate may not exceed 20,000 pounds, including all enforcement tolerances; the gross weight on a tandem axle operated on the interstate may not exceed 35,200 pounds, including all enforcement tolerances; the overall gross weight for vehicles operated on the interstate may not exceed 75,185 pounds, including all enforcement tolerances except as provided in item (4).
(2) Enforcement tolerance is fifteen percent for a vehicle or trailer transporting unprocessed forest products or only on noninterstate routes.
(3) Enforcement tolerance is fifteen percent for a vehicle or trailer transporting sod only on noninterstate routes.
(4) Vehicles with an overall maximum gross weight in excess of 75,185 pounds may operate upon any highway or section of highway in the Interstate System up to an overall maximum of 80,000 pounds in accordance with the following:
The weight imposed upon the highway by any group of two or more consecutive axles may not, unless specially permitted by the Department of Public Safety exceed an overall gross weight produced by the application of the following formula:
In the formula W equals overall gross weight on any group of two or more consecutive axles to the nearest 500 pounds, L equals distance in feet between the extreme of any group of two or more consecutive axles, and N equals number of axles in the group under consideration.
As an exception, two consecutive sets of tandem axles may carry a gross load of 68,000 pounds if the overall distance between the first and last axles of the consecutive sets of tandem axles is 36 feet or more. The formula is expressed by the following table:
Distance in feet between Maximum load in pounds carried on any group of 2
between the extremes of 2 or more consecutive axles
of any group of 2 or
more consecutive axles
2 axles 3 axles 4 axles 5 axles 6 axles 7 axles
4 35,200
5 35,200
6 35,200
7 35,200
8 and less 35,200 35,200
more than 8 38,000 42,000
9 39,000 42,500
10 40,000 43,500
11 44,000
12 45,000 50,000
13 45,500 50,500
14 46,500 51,500
15 47,500 52,000
16 48,000 52,500 58,000
17 48,500 53,500 58,500
18 49,500 54,000 59,000
19 50,500 54,500 60,000
20 51,000 55,500 60,500 66,000
21 51,500 56,000 61,000 66,500
22 52,500 56,500 61,500 67,000
23 53,000 57,500 62,500 68,000
24 54,000 58,000 63,000 68,500 74,000
25 54,500 58,500 63,500 69,000 74,500
26 55,500 59,500 64,000 69,500 75,000
27 56,000 60,000 65,000 70,000 75,500
28 57,000 60,500 65,500 71,000 76,500
29 57,500 61,500 66,000 71,500 77,000
30 58,500 62,000 66,500 72,000 77,500
31 59,000 62,500 67,500 72,500 78,000
32 60,000 63,500 68,000 73,000 78,500
33 64,000 68,500 74,000 79,000
34 64,500 69,000 74,500 80,000
35 65,500 70,000 75,000
36 68,000 70,500 75,500
37 68,000 71,000 76,000
38 68,000 71,500 77,000
39 68,000 72,500 77,500
40 68,500 73,000 78,000
41 69,500 73,500 78,500
42 70,000 74,000 79,000
43 70,500 75,000 80,000
44 71,500 75,500
45 72,000 76,000
46 72,500 76,500
47 73,500 77,500
48 74,000 78,000
49 74,500 78,500
50 75,500 79,000
51 76,000 80,000
52 76,500
53 77,500
54 78,000
55 78,500
56 79,500
57 80,000
(B) On the interstate highways of this State, any over-the-road bus as defined in Title 49 of the United States Code, motorhome, or any vehicle which is regularly and exclusively used as an intrastate public agency transit passenger bus as defined in Title 49 of the United States Code, is excluded from the axle spacing requirements in subsection (A). However, these vehicles are limited to a maximum single axle weight limit of twenty four thousand pounds including all enforcement tolerances. Nothing in this section is intended to prohibit reasonable access to the national network and terminals and facilities for food, fuel, repairs, and rest.
(C) Except on the interstate highway system:
(1) Dump trucks, dump trailers, trucks carrying agricultural products, concrete mixing trucks, fuel oil trucks, line trucks, and trucks designated and constructed for special type work or use are not required to conform to the axle spacing requirements of this section. However, the vehicle is limited to a weight of twenty thousand pounds for each axle plus scale tolerances and the maximum gross weight of these vehicles may not exceed the maximum weight allowed by subsection (A)(1) for the appropriate number of axles, plus allowable scale tolerances.
(2) Concrete mixing trucks which operate within a fifteen-mile radius of their home base are not required to conform to the requirements of this section. However, these vehicles are limited to a maximum load of the rated capacity of the concrete mixer, the true gross load not to exceed sixty-six thousand pounds. All of these vehicles shall have at least three axles each with brake-equipped wheels.
(3) Well-drilling, boring rigs, and tender trucks are not required to conform to the axle spacing requirements of this section. However, the vehicle is limited to seventy thousand pounds gross vehicle weight and twenty-five thousand pounds for each axle plus scale tolerances."
SECTION 4. Section 56-5-4160(L) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 234 of 2008, is amended to read:
"(L) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the maximum gross vehicle weight and axle weight limit for a vehicle or combination of vehicles equipped with an idle reduction system, as provided for in 23 U.S.C. 127, may be increased by an amount equal to the weight of the system, not to exceed four hundred five hundred fifty pounds. Upon request by a law enforcement officer, the vehicle operator must provide proof that the system is fully functional and that the vehicle's gross weight increase allowed pursuant to this section is attributable only to the system."
SECTION 5. Section 56-35-30(B) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 234 of 2008, is amended to read:
"(B) For a vehicle equipped with an auxiliary power unit designed for idling reduction, the gross vehicle weight or axle weight used to determine the fine for a violation of commercial vehicle weight restrictions is the actual gross vehicle weight or axle weight reduced by four hundred five hundred fifty pounds."
SECTION 6. The repeal or amendment by this act of any law, whether temporary or permanent or civil or criminal, does not affect pending actions, rights, duties, or liabilities founded thereon, or alter, discharge, release or extinguish any penalty, forfeiture, or liability incurred under the repealed or amended law, unless the repealed or amended provision shall so expressly provide. After the effective date of this act, all laws repealed or amended by this act must be taken and treated as remaining in full force and effect for the purpose of sustaining any pending or vested right, civil action, special proceeding, criminal prosecution, or appeal existing as of the effective date of this act, and for the enforcement of rights, duties, penalties, forfeitures, and liabilities as they stood under the repealed or amended laws.
SECTION 7. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
This web page was last updated on February 11, 2016 at 12:01 PM