Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Permits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee debates annual permits for oversized building-material loads; agency seeks separate subsection
Summary
Lawmakers and the Wyoming Department of Transportation clashed over a bill that would create annual permits and expand allowable widths for portable buildings and building materials; YDOT and Highway Patrol urged a separate statutory subsection to avoid unintended impacts on agricultural haulers.
Lawmakers in the Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee debated a proposal to create longer-term permits and expand width allowances for moving portable buildings and building materials, saying the change would improve efficiency for businesses that deliver prefabricated structures.
Representative Smith presented House Bill 132 as a "Wyoming solution for a Wyoming problem," proposing to add "building materials and portable buildings" to an existing statute that permits oversized agricultural loads and to allow a one-year annual permit in place of repeated 90-day self-issued permits. "It would create efficiency, more time on the road, less time doing permits," Smith said, noting constituents who now must issue multiple self-permits when loads change en route.
Wyoming Department of Transportation staff and Wyoming Highway Patrol testified that the bill, as drafted, mixes two distinct classes of loads. Troy McAlpine of the Wyoming Highway Patrol said the current statute historically covered agricultural, divisible loads like baled hay or combine headers and that the proposed edits would unintentionally change how divisible loads are measured. "By removing that, we would then not be able to stack those hay bales side by side in order to meet the nondivisible definition," McAlpine said. He and YDOT staff recommended creating a separate subsection for portable buildings and building materials with its own fee structure and rules.
Committee members raised other concerns: Representative Davis asked for more precise definitions of "portable building unit" and "building materials;" Representative Provenza and Representative Straka questioned changing "may" to "shall" in permit issuance language because YDOT sometimes needs discretion to deny permits for safety or compliance reasons. YDOT's Troy McAlpine recommended keeping discretion and creating a separate permitting category so agricultural haulers are not forced into higher-fee annual permits.
Industry witnesses urged flexibility. Marcus Leningacher of Pine Ridge Structures said his company frequently hauls multiple sheds on a single trip and currently must self-issue permits every time the load changes: "Our loads, we have multiple loads per day ... we would like to buy an annual permit instead of all the paperwork of per load."
Committee members directed the bill sponsor and YDOT to draft a conceptual amendment: retain strike-through text (agriculture provisions) and move underlined text into a separate subsection that would address portable buildings and building materials with an appropriate fee schedule and definitions. Sponsor Representative Smith agreed to work with agency staff and the Legislative Service Office on language. The committee did not take a final vote on the bill; members discussed returning the bill with a conceptual amendment for further consideration.
No formal motions or votes on the bill's merit were recorded during the hearing. YDOT warned of safety and enforcement issues if the bill were advanced without separating the two types of permits and clarified that programming and rule work would be required to implement any new permanent or annual permit regime.
