The short version: a Nebraska single-trip permit starts at $25 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at 12' or more wide; and the load becomes a superload at over 160,000 lb. Everything below carries the Nebraska document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
Corridor
1. Where the load goes next
The jurisdictions this one borders, each chip carrying the fact that decides whether that crossing is the expensive one — so the row is itself a small comparison. A multi-state lane is the actual job, and from here it is one click per state rather than a return to an alphabetical index.
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
Measure
Legal limit
Width
8'6"rev. · read 60-6,288: "No vehicle which exceeds a total outside width of one hundred two inches, including any load but excluding designated safety devices, shall be permitted on any portion of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways." EXCLUSIVE ("which exceeds"). The same 102-inch figure is applied off-interstate with enumerated exceptions (farm equipment, combines, livestock vehicles, mobile homes, permitted oversize), and the statute authorises the Director-State Engineer to designate 96-inch-only highways — a narrowing this engine cannot evaluate, because it is a per-highway designation rather than a class. Corroborated by RM-421b item 1: "Maximum overall width — 8 feet 6 inches".
Height
14'6"rev. · read 60-6,289(1): "No vehicle unladen or with load shall exceed a height of fourteen feet, six inches" — EXCLUSIVE, and 14 FT 6 IN RATHER THAN THE 13 FT 6 IN COMMON ELSEWHERE IN THIS CORPUS, so a 14 ft 0 in load needs no Nebraska height permit. Exceptions run to 15 ft 6 in for combines and vehicles transporting them during daylight hours, and for farm equipment or implements of husbandry driven, picked up or delivered during daylight hours by dealers under 60-6,382. SEPARATELY, 60-6,289(2) disclaims any duty to raise structures above 12 ft 6 in and puts the risk of loss on the operator: "No person shall be required to raise, alter, construct, or reconstruct any underpass, bridge, wire, or other structure to permit the passage of any vehicle having a height ... in excess of twelve feet, six inches. The owners, lessees, and operators, jointly and severally, of vehicles exceeding twelve feet, six inches, in height shall assume the risk of loss to the vehicle or its load and shall be liable for any damages that result to overhead obstructions". That is a liability allocation with no price and is recorded, not applied. Corroborated by RM-421b item 2. The words "overhang" and "project" do NOT appear in this section.
Semitrailer length
53'rev. · read 60-6,290(1)(a)(iv): "A semitrailer operating in a truck-tractor single semitrailer combination, which semitrailer was not actually and lawfully operating in the State of Nebraska on December 1, 1982, may exceed the forty-foot limitation but shall not exceed a length of fifty-three feet including load." EXCLUSIVE. The 40 ft single-vehicle cap in (1)(a) is the general rule, with a truck allowed 45 ft under (vii) and a semitrailer carrying baled livestock forage allowed 59 ft 6 in under (v). Corroborated by RM-421b items 3, 4, 5 and 6: single vehicle 40 feet, combination 65 feet, semi-trailer 53 feet, semi-trailer and trailer 65 feet.
Overall length
None published
Kingpin to rear axle
None published
Front overhang
None published
Rear overhang
None published
Gross weight
By condition (2)
95,000 lb“non interstate divided” or “non interstate undivided”
20,000 lbrev. · read 60-6,294(2): "No wheel of a vehicle or trailer equipped with pneumatic or solid rubber tires shall carry a gross load in excess of ten thousand pounds on any highway nor shall any axle carry a gross load in excess of twenty thousand pounds on any highway. An axle load shall be defined as the total load transmitted to the highway by all wheels the centers of which may be included between two parallel transverse vertical planes forty inches apart extending across the full width of the vehicle." EXCLUSIVE ("in excess of"). THE 10,000 lb SINGLE-WHEEL LIMIT IS PUBLISHED IN THE SAME SENTENCE and the schema holds no wheel field, so it is recorded here and not evaluated; it binds before the axle limit on a load concentrated on one side. Both figures are corroborated by RM-421b items 7 and 8.
Tandem axle
34,000 lbrev. · read 60-6,294(11): "Any two consecutive axles the centers of which are more than forty inches and not more than ninety-six inches apart, measured to the nearest inch between any two adjacent axles in the series, shall be defined as tandem axles, and the gross weight transmitted to the road surface through such series shall not exceed thirty-four thousand pounds. No axle of the series shall exceed the maximum weight permitted under this section for a single axle." EXCLUSIVE, and it is the federal figure. THE 46,000 lb NUMBER A READER WILL HAVE SEEN IS NOT THIS: 408 NAC 3 § 002.03A permits 46,000 lb on each tandem of a truck-tractor semi-trailer carrying a non-divisible load, on four named corridors only, and that is a PERMIT ALLOWANCE rather than a legal limit — it is held in `permitEnvelopes` and confined to those corridors by `appliesWhen`. Recording 46,000 lb here would say such a tandem needs no permit, which is false. Corroborated by RM-421b item 9.
Not one number per dimension — the whole staircase. Each row is a condition the state actually publishes, what it requires when that condition holds, and the clause it comes from. Where a rule requires escorts and the source states no number, the row says that in the source's own words rather than reporting no requirement.
When
What is required
Source
width from 12' to 16'
1 certified escortAdvisory: 408 NAC 3 § 003.19B: "One escort vehicle conforming to the requirements of Section 001.06 is required for the movement of overdimensional vehicles or loads with the following dimensions: 003.19B1 12 to 16 feet in width". POSITION: § 003.19D puts the single escort to the FRONT on all undivided highways and to the REAR on divided highways — the opposite of Kansas on a four-lane undivided road. The count is one either way, so it is billed either way; the position is quoted only when the road class is stated.
1 certified escortAdvisory: 408 NAC 3 § 003.19B2: "125 to 150 feet in overall length". The two-escort rung is "greater than 150 feet" (§ 003.19C2), so exactly 150 ft 0 in takes one escort. Position follows § 003.19D — front on all undivided highways, rear on divided.
another rule already applies (ne-escort-one-12-to-16-ft-wide) or another rule already applies (ne-escort-one-125-to-150-ft-long) and the road is “interstate divided” or “non interstate divided”
another rule already applies (ne-escort-one-12-to-16-ft-wide) or another rule already applies (ne-escort-one-125-to-150-ft-long) and the road is “non interstate undivided”
$25rev. · read 408 NAC 3 § 009.04: "Single trip permit fees for the movement of a vehicle or vehicle combination not exempted in Section 009.01 will be as follows: Single trip - Overdimensional Only = $15.00; Single trip - Overweight Only = $20.00; Single trip - Overweight and Overdimensional = $25.00." FLAT PER PERMIT — not dimension-banded, not weight-banded, not per-mile, and with no separate base, processing or transaction charge anywhere in § 009 (§§ 009.01 through 009.08 read in full). $25 is encoded because the schema prices a permit as base plus components and cannot express three mutually exclusive flat totals; it is the only one of the three that is never an under-quote. SEPARATELY AND NOT APPLIED: § 009.04A "The fee for amending a permit shall be $10.00", with § 009.04B forbidding an amendment that changes the permit type and § 009.04C allowing only one amendment; § 009.02 makes the fee non-refundable even on an unused or voided permit, and § 009.03 requires payment before issuance. THE STATUTORY CEILING ABOVE ALL OF THESE is 60-6,298(7): "The department or local authority issuing a permit may require a permit fee of not to exceed fifty dollars", so $25 is lawful and the regulation, not the statute, sets what is charged.
Transaction / card
None publishedrev. · read AN AFFIRMATIVE ABSENCE, and the fee section was read in full to establish it. 408 NAC 3 §§ 009.01 through 009.08 contain no transaction, processing, service, administrative or percentage charge on top of the permit fee, flat or proportional, and neither does 60-6,298(7). The only additional charge in the regulation is the $10 amendment fee at § 009.04A, which is a post-issuance change rather than a charge on this permit.
Route analysis review
Not yet covered
Route with no bridges
Not yet covered
Nebraska has more than one permit issuer. A state total can be complete and still be missing a whole permit.
Nebraska local authorities (county, city and village road authorities) — 60-6,298(1)(a): "the Department of Transportation or the Nebraska State Patrol, with respect to highways under its jurisdiction including the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and LOCAL AUTHORITIES, WITH RESPECT TO HIGHWAYS UNDER THEIR JURISDICTION, may in their discretion upon application and good cause being shown therefor issue a special, continuing, or continuous permit in writing". Each authority permits its own roads, so a move that uses county, city or village roads — which most first and last miles do — needs that body's permit as well as NDOT's.. We do not hold this authority's fee schedule, so the leg goes to review rather than being quoted short. Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,298 — special, continuing or continuous permit; conditions; fees (as amended by LB1126)
Nebraska State Patrol — 60-6,298(1)(a) names "the Department of Transportation OR THE NEBRASKA STATE PATROL, with respect to highways under its jurisdiction including the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways" as issuers on the same footing. A co-equal state-police permit issuer is unusual in this corpus and is surfaced rather than buried: where the Patrol rather than NDOT holds jurisdiction over a highway on the route, the permit comes from the Patrol.. We do not hold this authority's fee schedule, so the leg goes to review rather than being quoted short. Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,298 — special, continuing or continuous permit; conditions; fees (as amended by LB1126)
Included in the base permit fee. 408 NAC 3 § 009.04 makes the overweight element change the permit TYPE rather than add a computed amount: "Single trip - Overweight Only = $20.00; Single trip - Overweight and Overdimensional = $25.00". There is no per-ton charge, no per-ton-mile charge, no weight-stepped band and no excess-over-legal-limit increment anywhere in § 009, so being overweight adds nothing on top of the flat type price. The ONE exception is the superload, which 60-6,298(7)(c) does step by weight — and which this engine refuses to price at all, because the regulation has no superload tier and the statute adds an uncapped cost-recovery fee beside its ladder.
There is no weight schedule to print, and under this model there is not supposed to be one.
Seasonal posting
6. Nebraska seasonal posting windows
A permit priced against an unposted-road assumption in March is simply wrong, and wrong in the expensive direction. This is the window we watch, the basis for that window in the state's own orders or statute, and the authority that posts it.
Seasonal posting
Programme
A statewide seasonal programmeRestrictions are announced through the NDOT truck-permit pages rather than as a numbered bulletin series.
Posting window we watch
02-01 → 04-30Nebraska thaws earlier than the northern tier; NDOT posts and lifts frost restrictions across late winter and early spring.
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
Trigger
Threshold
Gross weight
over 160,000 lbrev. · read 408 NAC 3 § 001.29: "SUPERLOAD: A vehicle or vehicle combination transporting a nondivisible load that is in excess of any of the following dimensions or gross weight: 16 feet in width; 15 feet, 11 inches in height; 150 feet in length; and/or Gross weight over 160,000 pounds." EXCLUSIVE — "over 160,000 pounds". NO FEE IS QUOTED ABOVE IT: 60-6,298(7)(c)(i) sets a ceiling of $250 / $400 / $800 by weight band, 408 NAC 3 § 009.04 has no superload tier at all and still reads $15/$20/$25, no post-LB1126 revision of the regulation could be located, and 60-6,298(7)(c)(ii) adds an uncapped direct-cost recovery with no published rate on top of whichever figure is right. § 004.02: "Single Trip Permits for special overweight and/or overdimensional movements (Superloads) must be reviewed by and approved by the Lincoln Permit Office and may require review and approval by the Bridge Division and/or District Engineer prior to issuance of a permit."
Width
over 16'rev. · read 408 NAC 3 § 001.29, first limb: "16 feet in width", read through "in excess of any of the following", so EXCLUSIVE. A load of exactly 16 ft 0 in is not a superload and takes one escort under § 003.19B1; the two-escort rung and the superload both begin past 16 ft.
Height
over 15'11"rev. · read 408 NAC 3 § 001.29, second limb: "15 feet, 11 inches in height". EXCLUSIVE. ONE INCH UNDER 16 FT, DELIBERATELY, AND A READER WILL WANT TO "CORRECT" IT — do not. The superseded 415 NAC ch. 3 (last updated November 2018) said "16 feet in height", so any stale secondary source will show 16 ft; 408 NAC ch. 3 is the current rule and says 15 ft 11 in. A load measuring exactly 16 ft 0 in high is a superload in Nebraska today and was not in 2018.
Length
over 150'rev. · read 408 NAC 3 § 001.29, third limb: "150 feet in length". EXCLUSIVE. THE 2018 PREDECESSOR SAID 100 FEET — 415 NAC ch. 3 defined a superload as "16 feet in width; 16 feet in height; 100 feet in length; Gross weight over 160,000 pounds" — so a stale source moves this boundary fifty feet the wrong way. Review time also lengthened, from "up to five working days" to "up to ten business days" (§ 001.28A).
The dimensions at which Nebraska triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
Measurement
Inspection / review trigger
Width
Not yet covered
Height
Not yet covered
Length
Not yet covered
Police escorts
9. Police escorts
No schedule exists, and that is structural rather than a gap. NEBRASKA HAS NO LAW-ENFORCEMENT ESCORT TO PRICE. 408 NAC ch. 3 was read in full, including the §009 fee schedule: every escort it requires is a private escort vehicle on the carrier's account, the State Patrol appears in enforcement and road-hazard roles rather than as a provider of escorts for permitted moves, and the fee schedule — $15.00/$20.00/$25.00 single-trip, the continuous-permit ladder, the $250.00 Extra-Long Vehicle annual — contains no escort item of any kind. With no service there is no rate, which is the New Jersey and Kansas shape rather than a document we failed to find.
This is a positive finding: we searched and there is nothing to quote. It is not the same as "no police escort is ever required here".
Holiday, curfew and night-travel windows are not yet encoded for Nebraska. The seasonal picture — which is a different question — is in section 6 above.
Why those windows are absent rather than estimated
They are not guessed at here. What we do publish is the seasonal weight-restriction picture, with the date we last read each state's own bulletin — a curfew invented from a plausible pattern is worth less than an honest gap, because a reader cannot tell the two apart on the page.
Who issues it
11. Permit office
The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure. We publish no per-state permit-office phone number.
Why there is no phone number here
We are not publishing per-state permit-office phone numbers yet, and the reason is worth stating: the two seed lists available for them are both demonstrably stale — the federal one gives two different states the same phone number — and a wrong number on a page like this costs somebody a morning. The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure, which is the part we can stand behind today.
Source conflicts
12. Where the sources disagree
Two official documents, both in effect, giving different answers. Neither has been adopted.
Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,288 — width of vehicles — Nebraska Legislature — PRIMARY, from the state's own statute host. Source of the 102 in legal width. The source history runs "Laws 1933, c. 105, § 1, p. 425" to "Laws 2017, LB339, § 220" and states no finer date than the year. rev. · read
Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,289 — height of vehicles — Nebraska Legislature — PRIMARY. Source of the 14 ft 6 in legal height. The words "overhang" and "project" do NOT appear in this section — part of the checked negative recorded in `publishedAbsences`. History ends "Laws 2014, LB1039, § 4." rev. · read
Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,290 — maximum length — Nebraska Legislature — PRIMARY. Source of the 53 ft semitrailer limit, of the 65 ft combination cap AND of the truck-tractor-single-semitrailer exception to it, and of every occurrence of the word "overhang" in Nebraska's length law — all of which sit inside exceptions. History ends "Laws 2025, LB561, § 2; Laws 2026, LB972, § 62. Operative Date: October 1, 2026". rev. · read
Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,294 — weight limits; axle, wheel and gross — Nebraska Legislature — PRIMARY. Source of the 10,000 lb wheel, the 20,000 lb single axle, the 34,000 lb tandem, the 95,000 lb table ceiling and the 80,000 lb interstate cap. History ends "Laws 2020, LB944, § 70." rev. · read
Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,298 — special, continuing or continuous permit; conditions; fees (as amended by LB1126) — Nebraska Legislature — PRIMARY. Source of the $50 permit-fee ceiling, the LB1126 superload fee ladder ($250 / $400 / $800), the UNCAPPED direct-cost recovery fee, the multi-issuer rule (department, Nebraska State Patrol and local authorities) and the registration precondition. History ends "Laws 2025, LB561, § 3; Laws 2026, LB1126, § 85." with "Effective Date: July 18, 2026". rev. · read
Title 408, Nebraska Administrative Code, Chapter 3 — NDOT Operations Division, Rules and Regulations Concerning Permits for Movement of Overweight and/or Overdimensional Vehicles and Loads — Nebraska Department of Transportation — PRIMARY CONTENT FROM A MIRROR. This is NDOT's own document, but NDOT's own URL — https://dot.nebraska.gov/media/td5ns30l/408-nac-3-04-30-2023.pdf — NOW RETURNS HTTP 404, so the bytes were taken from the Internet Archive's capture of that exact NDOT URL and the text layer was extracted locally; the quotes are verbatim, not paraphrase, and the archive URL above is given so the figures are re-checkable. Source of the $15/$20/$25 single-trip schedule (§ 009.04), the superload definition (§ 001.29), the escort thresholds and positions (§ 003.19), the 46,000 lb tandem corridors (§§ 002.03A-C) and the $0 Highway 75 implement-of-husbandry permit (§ 009.06E). Amounts and the 2023-04-30 effective date corroborated by Cornell LII's reprint of 408 Neb. Admin. Code ch. 3 § 009 (SECONDARY), which still shows this pre-LB1126 text and is therefore also the evidence that NDOT has published no revision. rev. · read
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Nebraska?
The single-trip base is $25, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does Nebraska require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is 12' or more.
What is a superload in Nebraska?
Nebraska's published gross-weight superload line is over 160,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.
Do Nebraska's own documents contradict each other?
Yes, in 1 place(s) we hold both documents for. They are set out in full above, each with its pinpoint citation, and none of them has been adopted.