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HOUSE
BILL 2459
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Passed Legislature -
1996 Regular Session
State of Washington 54th
Legislature 1996 Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/11/96.
Referred to Committee on Transportation.
Adjusting tire
factors for vehicle maximum gross weights.
AN ACT Relating to tire
factors in maximum gross weights; and amending RCW 46.44.042.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 46.44.042 and 1993 c
103 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
Subject to the maximum
gross weights specified in RCW 46.44.041, it is unlawful to operate any vehicle
upon the public highways with a gross weight, including load, upon any tire
concentrated upon the surface of the highway in excess of six hundred pounds
per inch width of such tire. ((Other than the nonliftable steering axle on
the power unit or tiller axle on fire fighting apparatus,)) An axle
manufactured after July 31, 1993, carrying more than ten thousand pounds gross
weight must be equipped with four or more tires. Effective January 1, 1997, an
axle((, excluding the nonliftable steering axle on the power unit or tiller
axle on fire fighting apparatus,)) carrying more than ten thousand pounds
gross weight must have four or more tires, regardless of date of manufacture.
Instead of the four or more tires per axle requirements of this section((:
(1))), an axle may be equipped with two tires limited to five
hundred pounds per inch width of tire((; or (2) in the case of a ready-mix
concrete transit truck, the rear booster trailing axle may be equipped with two
tires limited to six hundred pounds per inch width of tire)). This section
does not apply to vehicles operating under oversize ((and)) or
overweight permits, or both, issued under RCW 46.44.090, while
carrying a nonreducible load.
The following
equipment may operate at six hundred pounds per inch width of tire: (1) A
nonliftable steering axle or axles on the power unit; (2) a tiller axle on
fire fighting apparatus; (3) a rear booster trailing axle equipped with two
tires on a ready-mix concrete transit truck; and (4) a straddle trailer
manufactured before January 1, 1996, equipped with single-tire axles or a
single axle using a walking beam supported by two in-line single tires and used
exclusively for the transport of fruit bins between field, storage, and
processing. A straddle trailer manufactured after January 1, 1996, meeting
this use criteria may carry five hundred fifteen pounds per inch width of tire
on sixteen and one-half inch wide tires.
For the purpose of this
section, the width of tire in case of solid rubber or hollow center cushion
tires, so long as the use thereof may be permitted by the law, shall be
measured between the flanges of the rim. For the purpose of this section, the
width of tires in case of pneumatic tires shall be the maximum overall normal
inflated width as stipulated by the manufacturer when inflated to the pressure
specified and without load thereon.
The department of
transportation, under rules adopted by the transportation commission with
respect to state highways, and a local authority, with respect to a public
highway under its jurisdiction, may extend the weight table in RCW 46.44.041 to
one hundred fifteen thousand pounds. However, the extension must be in
compliance with federal law, and vehicles operating under the extension must be
in full compliance with the 1997 axle and tire requirements under this section.
Passed
the House February 5, 1996.
Passed
the Senate February 28, 1996.
Approved by the Governor March 20, 1996.
Filed in
Office of Secretary of State March 20, 1996.
