The House Transportation Committee unanimously approved an amendment and recommended a due pass on House Bill 1053 to adjust how the state measures the maximum length of the state highway system. The committee’s amendment removes an obsolete percentage-based calculation and preserves a fixed cap of 7,700 miles.

Ron Henke, director of the North Dakota Department of Transportation, told the committee the contested statutory language dates to the 1920s and 1930s and that previous internal counting included city streets and two-track trails, practices that have left the department near the stated percentage cap. "What has happened to us is this law...was modified in 1933 to put the limit of 7,700 miles," Henke said, and he explained how counting conventions made compliance confusing. Henke said a separate statute already limits the director to adding no more than 50 miles to the system in a single year.

Representative Koppelman sponsored an amendment that struck the percentage-based language while leaving the numeric cap intact; committee members supported the change to eliminate a measurement method the DOT no longer uses internally. During discussion, members asked whether a numeric cap could be increased; Henke said the department prefers a fixed cap that keeps the state in compliance without frequent recalculation.

On a roll call the committee approved the amendment and then a due pass on the bill as amended; the recorded vote was unanimous. The amended bill will keep the statutory mile limit but remove the formulation that had required the department to measure its statewide mileage as a percent of all township, county and state roads, a practice that staff said had produced inconsistencies over time.

Votes at a glance: House Bill 1053 (as amended) — committee recommendation: Due pass (14–0).