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Farm groups push higher truck weight limits; DOT, counties and townships warn of bridge and road damage
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Summary
House Bill 1407 would raise gross vehicle weight limits on state and local highways to allow heavier farm and commodity trucks (proposal cited 113,000 pounds). The House Transportation Committee heard farm‑industry support and technical opposition from the North Dakota Department of Transportation, counties and townships.
Representative Mike Brandenburg, sponsor of House Bill 1407, told the committee he seeks an £8,000 increase (to 113,000 pounds) for certain non‑interstate configurations to match heavier loads common just across the South Dakota border. Brandenburg cited farmers' need to move grain to nearby ethanol plants and said heavier permitted configurations would reduce trips and line wait times.
Pete Hanover of the North Dakota Farm Bureau told the committee the organization supports raising weight specifications on state highways to accommodate modern equipment. Brandenburg and supporters said appropriate tire and trailer configurations can allow higher weights without immediate failure of well‑constructed highways.
Wade Swenson, Office of Operations Director for the North Dakota DOT, opposed the bill. He described multiple statutory weight and length regimes and noted a 1991 freeze on interstate gross weights at 80,000 pounds under federal law. Swenson said state roads currently use an "outer bridge" formula for US and state highways and that moving to heavier legal weights would require use of the federal bridge formula, reloads of bridge ratings, and other code changes. He warned of substantial costs to re‑rate bridges (thousands of National Bridge Inventory structures), potential loss of federal funding if bridge‑rating corrective actions are not completed, and possible shortened pavement and bridge service life.
County and township officials, including Jenny Dietzeman of the North Dakota Association of Counties and Larry Severson of the Township Officers Association, told the committee that most county and township roads were designed for 80,000‑pound loads and cannot sustain a near‑30% increase in legal weight without costly upgrades. Dietzeman said North Dakota's rural bridges have among the highest rates of structural deficiencies nationally and warned that raising legal limits to 113,000 pounds would accelerate damage and closures.
Jeff Simon, representing the Western Dakota Energy Association, noted permit systems and local "harvest permits" that already allow limited seasonal overweight hauling (for example, a 10% harvest permit option) and encouraged counties to join permit programs as a partial mitigation.
Nut graf: The hearing highlighted competing priorities: farm and commodity haulers want higher legal weights to match adjacent states and reduce trips; DOT and local road authorities warn that most non‑federally‑funded local roads and many bridges were not designed for those loads and that legal increases carry large bridge‑rating, pavement and fiscal consequences.
Ending: The committee closed the hearing with no immediate vote. Members asked DOT and county engineers for technical details; sponsor and supporters were urged to consider the existing large‑truck network permit process as a potential pathway for selective route access.
