BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1101
Author: Chesbro (D)
Amended: 1/14/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 10-0, 6/10/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso, Lara, Liu,
Pavley, Roth, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beall
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 1/29/14 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Vehicle lengths on Highway 101
SOURCE : California Cattlemen's Association
County of Humboldt
DIGEST : This bill extends indefinitely the time during which
oversized trucks transporting livestock may travel on Highway
101 in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino counties.
ANALYSIS : Most large trucks on the highway are truck
tractor-semitrailer combinations. Typically, a truck tractor
pulls a semitrailer. A semitrailer is a trailer that is
constructed so that some part of its weight and load rests upon
or is carried by another vehicle, usually a truck tractor. A
kingpin is the main pin used to connect a trailer to a truck
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AB 1101
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tractor. The distance from the kingpin to the rear axle is
referred to as KP-RA length.
Generally, any increase in the wheelbase of any vehicle in a
combination of vehicles will result in more roadway used to
complete a turn, including an increase in the KP-RA distance for
truck tractor-semitrailer combinations. Thus, a semitrailer
with a longer KP-RA distance is more likely to go into an
adjacent lane or alternatively off the road when rounding a
curve.
Existing law:
1.Prohibits on California routes any combination of vehicles
coupled together, including any attachments, from exceeding a
total length of 65 feet, with various semitrailer lengths
allowed depending on the KP-RA distance and on the specific
route.
2.Provides an exemption to the above length limitation until
January 1, 2015, for licensed carriers of livestock on
portions of Highway 101, which is a California route, in the
counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino, if the travel
is necessary and incidental to the shipment of livestock. The
exemption allows a truck tractor-semitrailer combination of up
to 70 feet, provided that the KP-RA distance does not exceed
43 feet and the semitrailer is not more than 48 feet long.
(Elsewhere Highway 101 qualifies as a federal terminal access
route, which allows for semitrailers of up to 48 feet and sets
no limit on overall length.)
This bill deletes the January 1, 2015 sunset date on the
exemption from length limits for livestock carriers on portions
of Highway 101 so that trucks up to 70 feet in length and with a
KP-RA distance of up to 43 feet can travel there until:
1.All route improvements are completed without any pending legal
restraints; and
2.The Director of the Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
determines and declares that Highway 101 in the counties of
Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino can accommodate these
vehicle combinations.
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Background
Highway 101 is the primary north-south route serving the north
coast of California, but there are curves on this section of
Highway 101 that long truck-trailer combinations cannot maneuver
without crossing over the center line of the highway into
oncoming traffic. As a result, Caltrans determined that truck
tractor-semitrailer combinations that exceed a total length of
65 feet and a KP-RA distance of 32 feet could not travel on
Highway 101 in Humboldt, Del Norte, and Mendocino Counties.
Until 1999, these length restrictions made the travel of most
interstate trucks there illegal. Then in 1998, representatives
of the livestock industry contended then that these restrictions
were diminishing their ability to do business. They contended
that the regulations denied two of the north coast counties,
Humboldt and Del Norte, full access to available livestock
trucking opportunities. To address their concerns, AB 2426
(Strom-Martin, Chapter 711, Statutes of 1998), created a
two-year length limit exemption period for livestock carriers of
up to 70 feet in total and 40 feet from kingpin to rear axle to
travel on portions of Highway 101. The bill also required that
the California Highway Patrol (CHP) conduct a study on the
possible safety impacts of the exemption. Several bills since
have extended or expanded length limit exemption as follows:
AB 1474 (Cardoza, Chapter 911, Statutes of 1999) added one more
year to the exemption and gave CHP until July 1, 2001 to
complete the study and report to the Legislature.
AB 220 (Strom-Martin, Chapter 413, Statutes of 2001) continued
the exemption until January 1, 2004 and instructed the CHP to
conduct a second study on the possible safety impacts, which was
never issued.
SB 127 (Chesbro, Chapter 188, Statutes of 2003) extended the
sunset date until January 1, 2007 and required CHP to conduct a
third study on the safety impacts, which was issued on March 20,
2006.
SB 1224 (Chesbro, Chapter 449, Statutes of 2006) extended the
sunset date until 2012 and required CHP to continue the
comprehensive study of the effect of the exemption on public
safety and to make recommendations on future exemptions by
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January 1, 2011.
SB 773 (Wiggins, Chapter 444, Statutes of 2007) increased the
size of the livestock trucks from 40 to 43 feet from kingpin to
rear axle. Concerns about these even longer vehicle
combinations, which would cross even farther into the lane of
oncoming traffic, prompted discussion between this committee and
Caltrans about completing improvements to Highway 101 that would
make the exemption obsolete. Caltrans reported then that it
would be able to complete improvements prior to the January 1,
2012 sunset date in (then) existing law. Unfortunately, this
turned out not to be true.
AB 349 (Chesbro, Chapter 172, Statutes of 2011) extended the
sunset date until January 1, 2015.
Highway safety concerns . Throughout the 15-year period the
length exemption has existed, Caltrans has maintained that
sections of Highway 101 are "geometrically inadequate for use by
truck tractor and semi-trailer combinations with a [KP-RA]
length over 32 feet and a combined vehicle length exceeding 65
feet." Longer vehicles allowed under the exemption in this bill
cross over into the oncoming lane of traffic or go off the
roadway when rounding curves in the highway. This is known as
"off tracking." This problem can only be resolved through
structural improvements to the highway, which are expensive and
raise significant environmental considerations.
SB 1224 (Chesbro, Chapter 449, Statutes of 2006) required CHP,
in consultation with Caltrans, to report to the Legislature on
the public safety impacts of the length limit exemption for
livestock trucks on Highway 101. CHP made this report in 2011.
While stating that no accidents have occurred as a result of the
exemption, the report further noted that:
CHP cannot ignore the fact that Caltrans' studies have
shown that portions of U.S. 101 are not sufficiently
designed to handle the longer vehicle combination lengths.
A permanent exemption of this type has the potential of
establishing a precedent for other exemptions in the future
and could result in increased damage to rural highways and
increased safety hazards due to longer truck tractor and
semitrailer combinations having to cross into oncoming
lanes while negotiating curves on narrow highways.
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The last 1.1 miles . Until 2008, three sections of Highway 101
stretching over 30 miles in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Mendocino
counties resulted in the exempted cattle truck tractor-trailers
off tracking and crossing into oncoming traffic or going off the
road. Caltrans constructed improvements to two of those
sections, so today just one section, a 1.1-mile segment of
Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt
County, results in these longer vehicles off tracking. In this
location, the highway narrows to a two-lane road with large
old-growth redwood trees adjacent to the traveled highway.
Elsewhere Highway 101 qualifies as a federal terminal access
route, which allows for semitrailers with KP-RA of up to 40
feet.
Caltrans had scheduled the Richardson Grove curve correction
project to be completed by December 31, 2011, but litigation
brought by opponents of the project has delayed the start of
construction. In June 2011, the U.S. District Court in San
Francisco imposed a preliminary injunction, putting the project
on hold until a hearing in December 2013. Caltrans prevailed in
that hearing, but project opponents filed an appeal. In
February 2014, the Court of Appeal upheld most of the Caltrans
environmental impact report (EIR), but the court found that a
limited aspect of the EIR did not comply with the California
Environmental Quality Act, and required some further
clarification of the significance of the project's impacts on
redwood tree root zones. The limited ruling vacated project
approval. Currently, Caltrans staff are reviewing the ruling
and seeking to comply with it. As the trial court will be
involved again, Caltrans reports that construction of the
project is not likely to begin until at least late 2015 and will
not be completed until at least 2017.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/24/14)
California Cattlemen's Association (co-source)
County of Humboldt (co-source)
Rural County Representatives of California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author contends that extending the
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length exemption, as this bill would, will allow north coast
cattle ranchers to continue to be able to move livestock in a
cost-effective manner while Caltrans and concerned parties
resolve issues regarding the curve correction project at
Richardson Grove. Without this exemption, Caltrans restrictions
along Highway 101 will severely limit the ability of livestock
producers to effectively participate in intrastate and
interstate marketing and transport of cattle.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 1/29/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Morrell, Mullin,
Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, V.
Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-
Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams,
Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Logue, Perea
JA:e 6/23/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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