By Jones of Lubbock, Swinford, Chisum H.B. No. 3570
75R7724 JD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the length limitation for a vehicle or vehicle
1-3 combination transporting a combine.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 622.902, Transportation Code, is amended
1-6 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 622.902. LENGTH EXCEPTIONS. The length limitations
1-8 provided by Sections 621.203 to 621.205 do not apply to:
1-9 (1) machinery used exclusively for drilling water
1-10 wells, including machinery that is itself a unit or that is a unit
1-11 mounted on a conventional vehicle or chassis;
1-12 (2) a vehicle owned or operated by a public, private,
1-13 or volunteer fire department;
1-14 (3) a vehicle or combination of vehicles operated
1-15 exclusively in the territory of a municipality or to a combination
1-16 of vehicles operated by a municipality in a suburb adjoining the
1-17 municipality in which the municipality has been using the equipment
1-18 or similar equipment in connection with an established service to
1-19 the suburb;
1-20 (4) a truck-tractor, truck-tractor combination, or
1-21 truck-trailer combination exclusively transporting machinery,
1-22 materials, and equipment incidental to or used in the construction,
1-23 operation, and maintenance of facilities that are used for the
1-24 discovery, production, and processing of natural gas and petroleum,
2-1 and that machinery, materials, and equipment when used in the
2-2 construction and maintenance of pipelines;
2-3 (5) a drive-away saddlemount vehicle transporter
2-4 combination or a drive-away saddlemount with fullmount vehicle
2-5 transporter combination, as defined by 23 C.F.R. Part 658 or its
2-6 successor, if:
2-7 (A) the overall length of the combination is not
2-8 longer than 75 feet; and
2-9 (B) the combination does not have more than
2-10 three saddlemounted vehicles if the combination does not include
2-11 more than one fullmount vehicle; [or]
2-12 (6) the combination of a tow truck and another vehicle
2-13 or vehicle combination if:
2-14 (A) the other vehicle or vehicle combination
2-15 cannot be normally or safely driven or was abandoned on a highway;
2-16 and
2-17 (B) the tow truck is towing the other vehicle or
2-18 vehicle combination directly to the nearest authorized place of
2-19 repair, terminal, or destination of unloading; or
2-20 (7) a vehicle or combination of vehicles used to
2-21 transport a combine that is used in farm custom harvesting
2-22 operations on a farm if the overall length of the vehicle or
2-23 combination is not longer than 75 feet.
2-24 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-2 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-3 passage, and it is so enacted.