Kentucky Truck Weight Limits

How much a truck can weigh in Kentucky

On the Interstate and most roads you are held to 80,000 (KRS 189.222). Coal is the exception. A five-axle-or-more tractor-semitrailer hauling coal or coal by-products on the Extended Weight Coal Haul Road System can gross up to 120,000, plus a 5% tolerance (KRS 177.9771). The base overweight fine is light: 2 cents a pound of excess, and even more than 5,000 pounds heavy it stays between $100 and $500 (KRS 189.990).

Axles, off-Interstate, and permits

• Off the Interstate: 80,000 lb base, and off the Interstate a 5% per-axle tolerance rides on top without lifting that 80,000 gross (KRS 189.222(1)(d)). Fluid milk moving from a farm to first market runs 90,000 lb on any state highway with no permit, and off the Interstate a 10% tolerance rides on that (KRS 189.222(4)). Haulers registered under KRS 186.050 and running only farm crops, meats, livestock, poultry, primary forest products, or livestock feed get a 10% gross tolerance off the Interstate, about 88,000 lb (KRS 189.222(3)). Coal on the Extended Weight Coal Haul Road System goes to 120,000 lb plus a 5% tolerance (KRS 177.9771). Posted bridge limits still govern, and the Interstate stays at 80,000 lb.
• Single axle: 20,000 lb
• Tandem axle: 34,000 lb
• With a permit: 120,000 lb (plus a 5% tolerance) for a 5-axle-or-more tractor-semitrailer hauling coal or coal by-products on the Extended Weight Coal Haul Road System (KRS 177.9771). Other overweight by permit.
• The coal-haul network is defined as parkways and public roads that moved 50,000+ tons of coal in the prior year. Coal haulers buy an extended-weight decal; the light $500-cap base fine is the general-highway overweight penalty, not what coal or permit programs charge.

Posted bridge and road limits

Kentucky posts load-limited bridges and roads on MUTCD R12 signs. WEIGHT LIMIT X TONS is short tons (2,000 lb), so 10 TONS means 20,000 lb. A posted limit overrides the legal max: a legal 80,000-lb truck cannot cross a bridge posted below its weight and must detour. Crossing a posted structure over the limit is a separate offense and can carry liability for damage to the bridge.

What running heavy costs

Under KRS 189.990(2)(a)1: 2 cents per pound of excess when the excess is 5,000 lb or less; when the excess is over 5,000 lb, still 2 cents per pound but not less than $100 and not more than $500. That $500 ceiling does not apply on a posted state-maintained bridge more than 75 years old, where the fine is $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second offense within one year, and $2,000 for any subsequent offense within one year, provided the Transportation Cabinet has erected the warning signs; without those signs you fall back to the 2 cents per pound schedule (KRS 189.990(2)(a)2). Coal-haul and other extended-weight operations run under separate decal, registration, and permit systems.

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