Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, March 1, 2024
RELATES TO:
KRS
189.221,
189.222,
23 C.F.R. Part 658
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY:
KRS
189.222 authorizes the Secretary of
Transportation to establish reasonable size limits for motor vehicles using the
State Primary Road System. 23 CFR Part 658 requires the states to establish
access review procedures certified by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
for purposes of allowing the operation of specified vehicles beyond the
original limits of the National Truck Network as authorized by the Surface
Transportation Appropriations Act of 1982. This administrative regulation is
promulgated in order to provide for the procedures for the selection of
additional highway segments to be included in the National Truck Network and
terminal and service facility access review procedures to be administered by
the Department of Highways.
Section 1.
Definitions.
(1) "STAA vehicle" shall mean a
vehicle which exceeds the dimension limits set forth in
603 KAR
5:070, Section 1, but which does not exceed the
dimensions prescribed by
603 KAR
5:070, Section 2(2). This includes the larger vehicles
authorized by the Surface Transportation Assistant Act of 1980 as amended and
23 CFR Part 658.
(2) "National
Truck Network (NTN)" shall mean the system of highway routes in Kentucky
described in
603 KAR
5:070, Section 3, and Appendix A to 23 CFR Part 658
.
(3) "Reasonable access" shall
mean the right for an STAA vehicle to access a terminal or service facility
under the provisions of 23 CFR Part 658.19 .
(4) "Service facility" shall mean any
commercial facility that provides repair, fuel, food, or rest to an STAA
vehicle or its operator.
(5)
"Terminal" shall mean any location where freight either originates, terminates,
or is handled in the transportation process, or where commercial motor carriers
maintain operating facilities.
Section 2. 23 CFR Part 658. Selection of the
National Truck Network highways and access to terminals and services by STAA
vehicles shall be governed by 23 CFR Part 658.
Section 3. Right of Access Without Review.
Access to terminal and service facilities shall be allowed for STAA vehicles up
to five (5) driving miles from the National Truck Network on state-maintained
routes and up to one (1) mile on any nonstate-maintained route except where
STAA vehicles are prohibited from using a route following the provisions set
forth in Section 5 of this administrative regulation.
Section 4. Automatic Access by Special
Vehicles.
(1) Household goods transporters
automatic access. An STAA vehicle operated by a household goods carrier who has
been certificated as a household goods carrier by either the Interstate
Commerce Commission or the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet under the provisions
of KRS Chapter 281 shall have access between any points needed for the loading
and unloading of the motor vehicle except where STAA vehicles specifically are
prohibited from using a route following the provisions set forth in Section 5
of this administrative regulation.
(2) Short semitrailers automatic access. An
STAA vehicle being operated in a truck tractor-semitrailer combination in which
the semitrailer has a length which does not exceed twenty-eight and one-half
(28 1/2) feet shall have access to any route except where STAA vehicles
specifically are prohibited from using a route following the provisions set
forth in Section 5 of this administrative regulation.
Section 5. Use of Route Prohibited. Any route
within the one (1) mile or five (5) mile automatic access allowance set forth
in Section 3 of this administrative regulation or in the automatic access
allowed by the provisions of Section 4 of this administrative regulation that
has significant, clearly-evident safety problems may by Transportation Cabinet
official order or local ordinance which has been reviewed and approved by the
Transportation Cabinet be closed to use by STAA vehicles provided there is
compliance with the following:
(1) If the
prohibition of use is on a state-maintained route, an official order for that
purpose shall be issued by the Transportation Secretary with the approval of
the State Highway Engineer.
(2) If
the prohibition of use relating to a locally-owned highway is the result of
action by a local jurisdiction, that jurisdiction shall provide the State
Highway Engineer with copies of the appropriate ordinance for review by the
Department of Highways in order to ensure consistency of the local ordinance
with 23 CFR Part 658. The Transportation Cabinet shall either approve,
disapprove or offer changes to the local ordinance within thirty (30) days of
receipt of the ordinance. If the Transportation Cabinet fails to act within the
thirty (30) days, the local ordinance shall become effective on the 31st
day.
(3) Any route normally falling
within the five (5) mile or one (1) mile automatic access which is prohibited
for use by STAA vehicles under the provisions of this section shall be
identified by the placement of a traffic sign by either the Department of
Highways or the local government unit having jurisdiction over the
route.
(4) Any route normally
falling within the five (5) mile or one (1) mile automatic access which is
prohibited for use by STAA vehicles under the provisions of this section shall
be identified in
603 KAR
5:070.
Section 6. Request for New Route to be
Available to STAA Vehicles or Terminal and Service Facility Access Review. Any
owner or operator of an STAA vehicle who has need to operate a STAA vehicle on
a publicly-owned highway route segment not set forth in
603 KAR
5:070 or who cannot reach a terminal or service
facility through the access provisions of Section 3 of this administrative
regulation and the highway segments set forth in
603 KAR
5:070 may request review of a specific route by the
following procedures:
(1) The applicant shall
file a written request addressed to the Division of Planning, 419 Ann Street,
Frankfort, Kentucky 40622, in an envelope plainly marked "STAA Route
Review";
(2) The applicant
currently shall mark on a state highway map the routes the applicant travels
within Kentucky. The applicant shall also provide a written description of
these routes;
(3) The applicant
shall mark on the same map used in subsection (2) of this section the proposed
route to be reviewed and, if appropriate, mark the terminal or service facility
proposed to be used by STAA vehicles. The applicant shall also provide a
written description of the route desired to be traveled in Kentucky, the reason
why the route is desired to be used, and furnish any other appropriate proof of
need to use the route;
(4) The
applicant shall describe the STAA motor vehicle proposed to be operated by the
applicant over the route, including kingpin distance of trailers as measured to
the center of the rear axle and the amount of rear overhang as measured from
the center of the rear axle to the rear of the trailer. These dimensions shall
not exceed a forty-one (41) foot kingpin distance nor a rear overhang of five
(5) feet; and
(5) The applicant
shall agree to supply a tractor-semitrailer vehicle combination in which the
semitrailer is fifty-three (53) feet long and 102 inches wide and the tractor
is a standard model rather than a short, snub-nosed model and driver for use in
demonstrating vehicle performances on the route requested to be reviewed within
thirty (30) days.
Section
7. Access Review Procedure.
(1)
After receipt of a "Request for Terminal or Service Facility Access Review"
which meets the requirements of Section 6 of this administrative regulation,
the Transportation Cabinet shall have ninety (90) days in which to inspect the
route as specified in Section 8 of this administrative regulation, make a
recommendation as to whether the route should be approved as an access route,
obtain the approval of the State Highway Engineer, and obtain the secretary's
approval of an official order designating the route as part of the access
routes for the NTN system, if so warranted. Otherwise, it shall notify the
applicant that the request has been refused.
(2) In making its findings, the
Transportation Cabinet shall consider all of the factors set forth in Section 8
of this administrative regulation. Failure to meet any one (1) of the
application requirements set forth in Section 5 of this administrative
regulation shall be grounds for denial of a request for access
review.
(3) Failure by the
Transportation Cabinet to either approve or reject the request within the
ninety (90) day period shall constitute automatic approval of this
request.
(4) If the route requested
for terminal or service facility access is locally-owned and not
state-maintained, the Department of Highways shall immediately notify the
jurisdictional unit of government of the request. The local government unit may
also review the request and respond to the Department of Highways with its
recommendations within sixty (60) days.
(5) If a route requested for terminal or
service facility access is of sufficient dimensions and ge-ometrics that there
is no question by the Transportation Cabinet of its suitability for inclusion
as an access route to the NTN, the route may be included as an access route to
the NTN by the Department of Highways without the tests prescribed in Section 8
of this administrative regulation.
Section 8. Provision for Over-the-road or
Template Tests. A test drive of the terminal or service facility access review
route shall be accomplished except where as-built planimetric plan drawings are
available at a sufficient scale for use of template measures. In these cases
the template measures may be substituted for an STAA vehicle test drive over
the route. Where no suitable as-built plans exist, the applicant-furnished STAA
dimension test vehicle shall be driven over the route and the vehicle's
performance recorded so as to provide a permanent record demonstrating the
adequacy or inadequacy of its performance. The test drive shall be performed at
or near the highway segment speed limit in order to approximate actual
conditions.
Section 9. Engineering
and Safety Criteria. Any route requested for terminal or service facility
access review in which the test drive or template measures required by Section
8 of this administrative regulation found the route to be inadequate shall be
subjected to an engineering and safety analysis. After a route inadequacy is
shown by the test imposed under Section 8 of this administrative regulation any
one (1) of the following design deficiencies shall disqualify a route from
further consideration for inclusion in the National Truck Network:
(1) A two (2) lane, two (2) directional route
which has a lane width of less than ten (10) feet;
(2) A route which has a structure on which
the bridge weight allowance is less than 80,000 pounds for use by a tractor
semitrailer combination with five (5) or more axles or is less than 73,500
pounds for use by a straight truck with four (4) or more axles;
(3) A route which has an underpass that has a
vertical clearance of less than thirteen (13) feet six (6) inches);
(4) A route which has a bridge structure with
a width, measured curb to curb, of less than twenty-two (22) feet;
(5) A route greater than one (1) mile in
length where the sight passing distance over fifty (50) percent of any segment
of the route is restricted to lengths less than 1,500 feet;
(6) A route where a combination of two (2) or
more of the following conditions on any segment of the route is of a magnitude
to constitute a clearly-evident safety hazard;
(a) There exists high degrees of horizontal
or vertical curvature;
(b) The
roadway shoulders are less than four (4) feet in width; or
(c) There is a narrow bridge on the road
segment;
(7) A route on
which the turning radii of urban intersections are insufficient, as measured by
template or on-site observation, to permit safe turning maneuvers by an STAA
vehicle or a route on which the operation of an STAA vehicle constitute a
safety hazard to other vehicle operators or public or private property by
reason of vehicle off-tracking or opposing lane encroachment; or
(8) A route on which the incidence of traffic
accidents is of a magnitude to indicate that any portion of the route is unsafe
for use by STAA vehicles.
Section
10. Request for New NTN Route for Use by STAA Vehicles. After
receipt of a request for a new NTN route for use by STAA vehicles which meets
the requirements of Section 5 of this administrative regulation and which was
not submitted in order to reach a terminal or service facility, the
Transportation Cabinet shall subject the requested route to the engineering and
safety analysis set forth in Section 9 of this administrative
regulation.
STATUTORY AUTHORITY:
KRS
189.222, 23 C.F.R. Part
658