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September 18, 2006
Governor Schwarzenegger signs SB372 to aid construction industry
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed Senate Bill 372, sponsored by Senator Bob Margett, R- Arcadia, which will help the construction transportation industry with the issue of local governments misunderstanding the nature of permits for unusually large and heavy loads.
The bill was supported by the Southern California Contractors Association. We have been working with Todd Bloomstine, SCCA’s legislative advocate, on this issue for sometime to clean up the language in CVC 37595 (b), which would stop local agencies from arbitrarily charging for services that were not being preformed. We now will have a clear definition of “unusually large or heavy loads” and /or Caltrans variance loads so that unless the load falls under Caltrans’ criteria for a variance, localities may not charge more than the $16 permit fee currently allowed under the regulations.
Existing law requires that special services necessitated by unusually large or heavy loads requiring engineering investigations, escorts, tree trimming, or other services be billed separately for each permit at a rate of $50 per hour. Under this bill, multiple identical loads can only be charged one time for any special services.
This bill would exclude from the list of special services required to be billed separately any services necessary to provide notification required under these provisions and services that are within the scope of the local authority's ordinary duty to provide. This bill would also require a local authority, for the purposes of determining whether special services are necessitated by an unusually large or heavy load, to be governed by specific regulatory criteria adopted by Caltrans.
City of Los Angeles
Management changes at the City of Los Angeles Department of Street Services, for a short time, made it seem that we would have to start over to resolve issues that we had already worked out with the previous administration. The problems we have with the city are changes made that affect our industry without any dialog with industry. Then the process begins to amend what has been changed. It takes months to fix the problems created by this process. This time we, fortunately, were able to remind the city of the promises made over the past few years—thank goodness for an effective email filing system. The following are the changes that took place and where we are with them currently.
1) Annuals Permits Annual Multi-Trailer Permit
We have resolved the issue with the interpretation of Ordinance Section 62.143 to read that you needed an annual permit for each type of equipment you were going to haul, example, an annual permit for dozers, scrapers, loaders, asphalt pavers, grinders, rollers, etc. After working with the City Attorney and Street Services it was agreed that on the face of the permit to include miscellaneous construction equipment such as crawler tractors, carry-all scrapers, pull-type scrapers, crawler cranes, backhoes, rollers, compactors, pavers, portable conveyors, etc. This will satisfy their concerns and if you are hauling any other construction equipment, you will be covered under your permit.
The city is requiring that the VIN and license number of the tractor.
If you have been issued a 5-axle annual, you may request an addendum that would cover 5, 7, 8 and 9-axle combinations at no additional charge.
Multi-trailer permits will be issued; there is a form at http://bsspermits.lacity.org.
2) Annuals for Mobile homes / Office Trailers / Modular Homes
The city has a problem with modular homes and making sure site permits are obtained prior to a modular home being move on to the site. There issue is no longer with mobile homes or office trailers. Modular homes movement continues to be under review.
3) Insurance Requirements
We are currently working with Risk Management to resolve unnecessary insurance requirements for routine loads.
4) Duration of a Permit
Transportation permits were only issued for one day at a time. The city will be updating its permit system soon to automatically issue the permit for three days, but until then you must request it.
5) 30 Day / Repetitive Permits
The city charges up to $274 a month and $1644 for the same 6 month period. Caltrans charges $90 for repetitive that is good for 6 months. Is the city is charging for each day and/or each load?
We met with Street Services and have requested that the city prorate their 30 day permits to be in line with Caltrans at $15 a month, not the $274 they have been charging. The California Vehicle Code 35795 (b) is very specific, that a locality may not charge more than Caltrans to issue a permit.
City Ordinances have been written by the City Attorney of Los Angeles:
The office of the City Attorney has completed the new ordinance language and it has been submitted to the City Clerk’s office. Here’s where we are with each, so far: Duration of Annual Permits: For years all annual permits expired on February 28th. City Council agreed and approved our request on January 26, 2005 for annual permits to expire from the date of issuance. “Not a problem” Hours of Travel: City Council agreed and approved our request on November 15, 2005 to allow industry to travel 7 days a week with the current curfew restrictions applying. “Not a problem” Curfew Travel Restriction: City Council agreed and approved our request on November 15, 2005, to allow travel of vehicles up to 10’ wide to travel during the hours of curfew restrictions. “Council member’s have a concern” We agreed to add language that would allow the Director of Public Works to restrict streets that were of concern because of their narrow width. These streets would be restricted from 10’ wide travel through curfew. Industry agrees that if there are streets that would not handle 10’ wide loads they should be restricted. This language was going to be drawn up by Street Services and discussed with Council Districts 5 and 11 to satisfy their concerns. The California Vehicle Code CVC 35104 exempts loads not exceeding 10’ from having to obtain a permit, which would also exclude them from any local regulations relating to 10’ wide loads.
City of Banning – Permit Fees
The City of Banning has complied with CVC 35795 (b) and lowered its transportation permit Fees from $26 back to $16.
City of Redding – Permit Fees
The City of Redding has complied with CVC 35795 (b) and lowered its transportation permit fees from $20 back to $16.
County of Sacramento:
We have had several meetings with the county and local enforcement to discuss why they are reducing dimensions that have been allowed and worked without any known problems for many years. They have no real answer, other than they should have never been issued in the first place.
1) Annual Permits
We requested that the county continue to allow 16’ 6” high for annual permits, but so far the county has restricted height to 15’.
We originally had 16’ and we requested 14’ 6” wide and the county has restricted width to 14’.
The county recommended 90’ in length, industry requested 135’ and the county agreed.
2) CHP Escort requirements, which were not required in the past.
We requested that their policy stay as it was and have their own inspectors escort the loads. Having CHP involvement adds up to ten days of additional and increased CHP cost. If enforcement is going to be required, we want options, not only CHP, but any enforcement agency.
3) Holiday Moratorium Requirements.
The county’s construction standards restrict construction activities within the roadway during this period in order to minimize additional congestion. The county restricts construction for 4 days during the Thanksgiving weekend and from December 8 through January 1. Our industry doesn’t just work on county roadways and to stop all over-dimensional movement for 28 days is absurd.
We explained that this restriction should only apply to road construction projects, not the entire trucking industry. The county has re-considered allowing movement from 9:00 pm to 7:00 am. Better, but still creates a problem for our industry.
4) Pilot Car requirements
The county required one pilot car for loads from 10’ to 11” wide and two pilot cars for loads exceeding 11’. They will be updating their current method of showing when a pilot car is required for width and put it in a map format. This will be available soon.
One improvement-- One pilot car is required for loads exceeding 100,’ the county agreed that only one pilot car be required when length exceeds 110’ and 135’ overall length on rear steering trailers.
5) Void Permits in all construction zones
Currently permits are considered void in construction zones. The county has agreed to revise the language to read “the permit holder is responsible for not proceeding into construction zones and routes should be used to avoid these locations”
City of Fontana
We recently met with the City of Fontana to discuss changes in their current transportation permit policy.
1) Single Trip Permits
On permits valid for one day, the city agreed to allow 3-days. Currently the police department has to sign off on each permit, creating unnecessary delay. The city agreed that this is something that should be looked into and will have further discussion with the department.
2) Annual Permits
- Allowable height increased from 14’ to 16’
- Allow width to be increased from 14’ to 15’ (pending approval)
- Add restriction on the face of the permit to show Railroad Bridge height on Foothill Blvd at 15’ 9”.
- Issue the permit to the company and the company supplies a list of truck license number.
3) Method of Payment
- Review possible on-line payment
- Review trust account payment
City of Ontario:
We recently met with the City of Ontario to discuss annual permit requirements:
- Permits issued to a company rather than each company vehicle. The city agreed that a company only need to supply a list of license numbers of all their vehicles and a permit would be issued to the company for $90.
- No weekend movement - Annuals will be issued for 15’ high, 14’ wide, 110’ in length, nights including weekends.
County of Contra Costa
We have recently requested the County of Contra Costa to review their current transportation permit policy.
- Annual Permit – We have requested that the county consider the issuance of annual permits.
- Pilot Car – The current policy requires 1-pilot car with height pole for any load exceeding 15’ in height. We have requested that a pilot car not be required until the load exceeds 17’.
Our message to the industry has been:
“If you have any problems with a local agency and you find yourself asking ‘why we are having to do things this way’ and the agency tells you’ this is the way we have always done it,’ let me know. We are here to make your transportation operations as smooth as possible in California and continue to be safe.”
Respectfully submitted
Gregory D. Dineen
Industry Transportation Consultant
cc: John Hakel, AGC D. Cash Benton, SCCA
Richard Paine, ECA Seth Hammond, MCOG
Richard Lambros, BIA Lee Brown, CDTOA
Aimee Shook, DCA Jeff Hunter, CTTA
Michael Vlaming, COA Michael Lewis, CIAQC
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