(A) All persons, companies, corporations, partnerships, and other legal entities shall be required to obtain a truck hauling permit prior to operating any motor vehicle upon any road within the jurisdiction of the county highway system if the total gross vehicle weight is in excess of the posted weight limit for said road, as hereinafter provided.
(B) This section shall apply to all highways in the county highway system under the jurisdiction of the Board of Commissioners, except highways in the state highway system, and the state maintained routes thereof, through cities and towns.
(C) The exemptions set forth in divisions (C)(1) and (C)(2) below, as contained in I.C. 9-19-1-2 and 9-19-1-3, shall apply to this section.
(1) The provisions of this division (C) shall not apply to vehicles while engaged in the construction of public highways when the movement of such vehicles is confined wholly to such highway or roads, or sections thereof, actually under construction and not yet open to unlimited public use, provided that the owner, or operator, of such vehicle first obtains, from the proper authority having jurisdiction, a permit, in writing, allowing such operation.
(2) The provisions of this division (C) shall not apply to machinery or equipment used in highway construction or maintenance by the State Highway Commission, counties, or municipalities; nor to farm-drainage machinery; nor to implements of husbandry, when so constructed that they can be moved without material damage to the highways; nor as limiting the width or height of farm vehicles when loaded with farm products; and the vehicles enumerated in this section may be moved, or operated, as to avoid any material damage to the highway, or unreasonable interference with other highway traffic. For the purpose of this section, any truck hauling unprocessed leaf tobacco is a farm vehicle loaded with a farm product.
(D) The Board of Commissioners shall determine, in its sole discretion, the county highways and roads, and portions thereof, which shall be closed or which shall be limited to vehicles not exceeding a total gross vehicle weight as determined by the Board of Commissioners for each of said county highways and roads, and as designated by the posting of appropriate signs as hereinafter provided in division (F) below.
(E) The determination of road closings and limitations may be altered, or amended from time to time, by the addition or deletion of roads, or portions thereof, or by the increase or decrease of weight limits for any of said roads, as shall be determined to be necessary in the sole discretion of the Board of Commissioners.
(F) The County Highway Department is now authorized, and directed, to erect and maintain signs designating the provisions of this section at each end of the portion of any county highway or road affected thereby, and at intersecting highways or roads.
(G) The provisions of divisions (D) and (E) above shall not be effective until signs designating the closing, or weight limits, are erected and maintained at each end of the portion of county highway or road affected thereby, and at all intersecting county highways or roads.
(H) Truck hauling permits shall be issued by the Auditor’s office, county courthouse, in Jasper, Indiana. Prior to issuing any truck hauling permit for any vehicle which shall be using a specific county highway or road for a continuous, or extended, period of time, as determined by the Board of Commissioners in its sole discretion, the County Auditor shall follow the procedures adopted thereto by the Board of Commissioners, including the requirement that the owner of said vehicle shall post with the County Auditor a cash and surety bond, at least 20% of which shall be a cash bond in a form approved by the Board of Commissioners, said bond equaling not more than $60,000 per mile for each mile of surfaced blacktop road to be used, not more than $40,000 per mile for each mile of chip and seal road to be used, and not more than $20,000 per mile for each mile of gravel road to be used by said owner. Said cash and surety bond shall ensure, and save harmless, the county from maintenance of damage to, and repairs to, said road while said bond is in effect.
(1) The cash portion of the bond shall be invested by the county in a savings account in a local depository of the public funds in the name of the county, with interest earned thereon to be credited of the individual, partnership, or company filing the bond. The county shall withdraw from each cash bond for the purpose of maintaining and repairing roads for which the bond was filed under the following procedure in division (H)(2) below.
(2) When the County Highway Supervisor finds that a bonded county highway is in need of repair or maintenance, he or she shall give three days notice by receipted mail, return receipt requested, or delivered in person to the users of said highway to repair or maintain the same to his or her satisfaction. If the needed maintenance or repair is not done within three days of delivery of the notice, the County Highway Supervisor will make the necessary repairs, or provide the needed maintenance. After the maintenance or repair work is done, those persons, partnership, or companies bonded to keep the road maintained and in repair are to be notified of the amount expended for such maintenance and repair, and their proportionate part of such cost, which shall be paid to the County Auditor within seven days. If said sums are not paid, the county shall withdraw the sum required from the cash bond to pay for the repair and maintenance, and notify the person, partnership, or company of the withdrawal. Within ten days thereafter, cash equal to the amount of the expenditure must be deposited by the holders of the permits with the County Auditor to maintain the 20% cash bond. If said bond is not maintained at 20%, the County Board of Commissioners may order that the permit be revoked until such time as the proper bond is filed.
(3) The owners of vehicles having surety bonds with the county in existence as of the effective date of this section, which allow for use of specific county highways and roads having weight limits thereon, shall not be required to place additional bonds on said specific county highways and roads. The owners of vehicles who have continuously, under the duly issued permits, used, operated over, and satisfactorily maintained, in the sole discretion of the Board of Commissioners, the designated county highways and roads for five immediately preceding years, and who have not been in default on, sued upon, or forfeited bonds on said highways and roads, may provide bond of an approved surety in the amounts provided in division (H) above in lieu of a cash bond.
(4) In the event that a truck hauling permit requiring the posting of a bond is requested for a county highway or road, or portion thereof, for which such a truck hauling permit already exists, the County Auditor shall immediately notify the holder of such existing permit, and his or her surety of the request. Each permittee shall be held jointly, and severally, liable for damage to any county highway or road, or portion thereof, which may be used by more than one permittee.
(I) (1) To prevent damage caused by excess weight on county roads during periods of freeze and thaw, the Commissioners hereby establish a ten ton gross load (weight) limit on all motor vehicles operated on county roads within Dubois County, Indiana during the period from January 15, 2022 through April 15, 2022. Jasper 3rd Avenue from Jasper city limits south to S.R. 162 is exempt from this division.
(2) Operation of a motor vehicle on any county road in violation of this division shall be a Class C infraction, as defined by I.C. 34-6-2-85 and I.C. 34-28-5-4.
(Ord. 1980-1, passed 8-11-1980; Res. passed 1-16-1989; Ord. 2021-41, passed 12-20-2021)