State profile · Texas
Legal limits, escort triggers, permit fees, the superload line and the police escort position for Texas — every figure carrying the state document behind it.
The short version: a Texas single-trip permit starts at $60 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at 14' or more wide; and the load becomes a superload at over 254,300 lb. Everything below carries the Texas document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
| Measure | Legal limit |
|---|---|
| Width | 8'6"rev. 2026-01-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Height | 14'rev. 2026-01-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Semitrailer length | 59'undated document · read 2026-08-31 |
| Overall length | None published |
| Kingpin to rear axle | None published |
| Front overhang | 3'undated document · read 2026-08-31 |
| Rear overhang | 4'undated document · read 2026-08-31 |
| Gross weight | 80,000 lbrev. 2026-01-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Single axle | 20,000 lbrev. 2026-01-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Tandem axle | 34,000 lbrev. 2026-01-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Measurement | First escort trigger | First police escort trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 14' or moreundated document · read 2026-08-31 | None published |
| Height | over 17'undated document · read 2026-08-31 | None published |
| Length | 110' or moreundated document · read 2026-08-31 | None published |
| Rear overhang | over 20'undated document · read 2026-08-31 | None published |
| Gross weight | None published | None published |
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Single-trip base | $60rev. 2026-01-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Transaction / card | $0.25 + 2.25% of the totalrev. 2021-02-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Route analysis review | $500rev. 2021-02-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Route with no bridges | $100rev. 2021-02-01 · read 2026-08-31 |
Transp. Code §623.077 sets a highway maintenance fee in four flat gross-weight steps. The general single-trip permit has no mileage component.
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
| Trigger | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Gross weight | over 254,300 lbundated document · read 2026-08-31 |
| Width | None published |
| Height | None published |
| Length | None published |
| Short axle spacing | 200,001 lb–254,300 lb on under 95 ft of axle spacingundated document · read 2026-08-31 |
The dimensions at which Texas triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
| Measurement | Inspection / review trigger |
|---|---|
| Width | over 20'rev. 2024-07-18 · read 2026-08-31 |
| Height | Sources disagree19' or more per escort requirements (k); route inspection tri… — versus — over 18'11" per TxDMV — General Single-Trip Permits |
| Length | over 125'rev. 2024-07-18 · read 2026-08-31 |
Charges exist and no schedule is published. TxDOT may require law-enforcement traffic control, sets no threshold that would let it be predicted, and publishes no officer rate.
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 Texas.
Texas spring thaw restrictions →
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.
The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure. We publish no per-state permit-office phone number.
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.
Two official documents, both in effect, giving different answers. Neither has been adopted.
Both are in effect and neither has been adopted.
Named rather than gestured at, because each of these can exceed the permit itself. Every item is listed; open one for why it is excluded.
This is a permit fee, not a freight rate.
We hold no rate data, and the two commercial sites that publish market rates disagree by nearly a factor of two on the same service.
The agency's review fee is shown where the state publishes one; the engineer's own fee is a private cost with no schedule.
Set per move by the agency, and in at least one state the escort is billed at actual cost against it.
Arranged with each utility, priced by each utility.
A toll, bridge or city authority inside the same state issues its own permit, and a state total that omits it is missing a whole permit.
The single-trip base is $60, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
The first width trigger is 14' or more.
Texas's published gross-weight superload line is over 254,300 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.
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.
