SENATE BILL REPORT

                  SSB 5222

                As Passed Senate, March 3, 1995

Title:  An act relating to log trucks and pole trailers.

Brief Description:  Regulating length of log trucks.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Transportation (originally sponsored by Senators Owen, Haugen, Prince, Morton and Winsley).

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Transportation:  1/26/95, 1/31/95 [DPS].

Passed Senate, 3/3/95, 47-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5222 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass. 

  Signed by Senators Owen, Chair; Heavey, Vice Chair; Haugen, Kohl, Morton, Oke, Prentice, Prince, Rasmussen, Schow, Sellar and Wood.

Staff:  Mary McLaughlin (786-7309)

Background:  The legal length of a semitrailer in a tractor/semitrailer combination is 53 feet.  For the logging industry, this restricts the length of logs that can be hauled on the public highways to 53 feet.

Some logging companies are seeking to increase the length of the logs that can be hauled.  An extra two to four feet gives the mill more options as to where to cut the log to achieve optimum quality.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has recently granted the logging industry a waiver to the 53-foot restriction.  The waiver allows log trucks to transport 57 foot 2 inch logs under a special overlength permit for a fee of $10 per month.   The overall length of the vehicle is 65 to 75 feet, depending on the length of the tractor.  The waiver terminates June 30, 1995.  The purpose of the waiver is to give the industry time to seek a legislative solution.

Summary of Bill:  The legal overall length of a log truck and stinger-steered pole trailer is 75 feet.  Stinger-steered means the coupling device is located behind the tires of the last axle on a log truck.  

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date:  The bill takes effect on June 1, 1995.

Testimony For:  Increasing the length of a log that may be hauled on a state highway increases the value of the log by allowing for optimum cutting.  The combination is the same length that is allowed for a truck/trailer combination.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  Jill Mackey, Pacific Lumber & Shipping (pro); George Kirkmier, WA Contract Loggers Assn. (pro); Barry Diseth, WSDOT (pro).