State profile · West Virginia

West Virginia oversize and overweight permits

Every figure here carries the West Virginia document behind it.

7 source documents on fileoldest revision 2023-03-17last retrieved 2026-10-1820 escort rules in effectNo source conflicts on fileFree · no account needed

The West Virginia answer

Legal limits

Width
8'6" · caveat ↓undated document · read
Height
13'6" · caveat ↓undated document · read
Overall length
The state publishes none
Gross weight
80,000 lb · caveat ↓undated document · read

First escort trigger

Width
10'6" or morerev. · read · lowest across road classes
Height
over 15'rev. · read
Length
75' or morerev. · read · lowest across road classes
Rear overhang
over 10'rev. · read
Gross weight
No trigger published

What the paper costs

Single-trip base
$20 · caveat ↓rev. · read
Transaction / card
None published · caveat ↓undated document · read
How overweight is priced
Priced by the milerev. · read
Superload above
The state publishes none

The short version: a West Virginia single-trip permit starts at $20 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at 10'6" or more wide; and the load becomes a superload at a gross weight the state does not publish. Everything below carries the West Virginia 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.

Compare West Virginia with its neighbours →

Escort ladder

3. The West Virginia escort ladder

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.

WhenWhat is requiredSource
front overhang over 10'
1 certified escort1 in front
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
rear overhang over 10'
1 certified escort1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
the move runs on a named segment (WV:turnpike-i64-i77) and width of 12' or more or overall length over 75' or front overhang over 10' or rear overhang over 10'
1 certified escort
A DIFFERENT AGENCY from WVDOH. The Parkways A…undated document · read
width from 10'6" to 12' and the road is “county routes” or “local service narrow”
1 certified escort1 in front
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
the vehicle is transporting building and width over 12' and the road is “interstate”
1 certified escort1 behind
The promulgated rule, filed with the Secretar…rev. · read
the vehicle is transporting building and width over 12'
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behind
The promulgated rule, filed with the Secretar…rev. · read
width from 12'1" to 14'
1 certified escort
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
width from 12'1" to 14' and the road is “county routes” or “local service narrow”
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
width from 14'1" to 15'
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
the vehicle is transporting building and width over 14'6" and the road is “interstate”
3 certified escorts1 in front2 behind
The promulgated rule, filed with the Secretar…rev. · read
height over 15'
1 certified escort1 in frontHeight pole required
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
width from 15'1" to 16'
2 certified escorts
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
width from 15'1" to 16' and the road is “county routes” or “local service narrow”
3 certified escorts2 in front1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
overall length from 75' to 95' and the road is “county routes” or “local service narrow”
1 certified escort1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
overall length from 95'1" to 100'
1 certified escort
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
overall length from 95'1" to 100' and the road is “county routes” or “local service narrow”
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
overall length over 100'
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behind
DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and li…rev. · read
the vehicle is transporting building and the road is “us and wv routes” or “county routes”
1 certified escort1 in front
The promulgated rule, filed with the Secretar…rev. · read

The first trigger in each dimension

MeasurementFirst escort triggerFirst police escort trigger
Width10'6" or morerev. · read · varies by road classNone published
Heightover 15'rev. · read None published
Length75' or morerev. · read · varies by road classNone published
Rear overhangover 10'rev. · read None published
Gross weightNone publishedNone published
The same rules restated in plain sentences20 rules

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Permit fees

4. West Virginia single-trip permit fees

ChargeAmount
Single-trip base$20rev. · read 157 CSR 5: "Special Permits for single trips will be issued at a basic fee of $20.00 covering any oversize dimension, overweight, or both types of permits. In addition to the basic fee, an overweight fee of $.04 per ton mile will be assessed." ONE BASE FEE COVERS OVERSIZE, OVERWEIGHT OR BOTH — the ton-mile charge is the only thing that stacks on it. Restated identically on WVDOT's permit-types page ("Cost: $20.00 base fee plus $0.04 per ton-mile for overweight loads"), which corroborates an otherwise undated web source against the promulgated rule. The annual products are not single-trip alternatives and are not applied: $200 oversize-only, $500 oversize and overweight, $200 for mobile homes up to 14 ft wide, and $150 for the first 15 seagoing-container permits plus $15 each thereafter.
Transaction / cardNone publishedundated document · read AN AFFIRMATIVE ABSENCE. No statutory or administrative percentage surcharge is promulgated by WVDOH. The FAQ describes payment "using a major credit card or via a pre-established escrow account managed through Bentley Systems" and names no surcharge on either. A SEPARATE $20 CHARGE EXISTS AND IS NOT A TRANSACTION FEE: WVDOT "may, at our discretion, charge $20 for all superload applications that are not activated (resulting in permits) within 30 days of the analysis" — that is a penalty for abandoning a superload application, is discretionary, and never attaches to an issued permit.
Route analysis reviewNot yet covered
Route with no bridgesNot yet covered

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Overweight model

5. How West Virginia prices overweight

Priced by the mile. 157 CSR 5: "an overweight fee of $.04 per ton mile will be assessed." Per mile, on the excess tonnage, with no bands and no flat alternative.

157 CSR 5 — WVDOH rules governing hauling permits — rev. · read

The distance charge, with its rounding

Rounding is not a detail here: the same rate over the same miles can differ by a whole increment depending on which pounds are rounded and in which direction, so the rule is printed with the source's own words rather than applied silently.

Gross weightAxlesRate and roundingSource
80,001 lb and up any
$0.04 per mile for each 2,000 lb above 80,000 lba part increment is not charged
The promulgated rule, filed with the Secretar…rev. · read
Seasonal posting

6. West Virginia 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.

West Virginia is not in the seasonal-restriction registry, so we hold no posting window for it and are not inventing one.

Superload

7. West Virginia's superload threshold

Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.

TriggerThreshold
Gross weightNone published
WidthNone published
HeightNone published
LengthNone published
Short axle spacingNot yet covered

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Route survey

8. Route survey and bridge review

The dimensions at which West Virginia triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.

MeasurementInspection / review trigger
WidthNot yet covered
HeightNot yet covered
LengthNot yet covered
Police escorts

9. Police escorts

Charges exist and no schedule is published. West Virginia publishes neither half of the question. The TRIGGER is a commodity test plus agency discretion rather than a dimension: 157 CSR 5 § 6.4.k requires police escort of "houses or other similar oversized structures that could cause significant disruptions to the normal flow of traffic", with "The Division of Highways shall determine the need for a police escort based on the information provided in the permit application and knowledge of the roads or highways being traveled." The RATE does not exist in published form — the West Virginia State Police posts no hourly, mileage, minimum-hours or per diem schedule on its site or anywhere in the Code of State Rules, and carriers coordinate directly with the local detachment or the municipal agency with jurisdiction. 157 CSR 5 was read in full.

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".

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Travel restrictions

10. When you can move it

Holiday, curfew and night-travel windows are not yet encoded for West Virginia. 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.

Scope

12. What this does not include

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.

Line haul, fuel and driver time

This is a permit fee, not a freight rate.

Civilian pilot car rates

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.

Route-survey engineering

The agency's review fee is shown where the state publishes one; the engineer's own fee is a private cost with no schedule.

Bonds and escrow

Set per move by the agency, and in at least one state the escort is billed at actual cost against it.

Utility coordination and line lifts

Arranged with each utility, priced by each utility.

Second-issuer permits

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.

Need a pilot car for this lane? Browse the pilot car & escort directory.

Price a lane through West Virginia →

Provenance

13. Every source behind this page (7)

Every document behind West Virginia7 sources
  • 157 CSR 5 — WVDOH rules governing hauling permits — West Virginia Secretary of State, Code of State Rules — The promulgated rule, filed with the Secretary of State. Source of the $20 base fee, the $0.04 ton-mile charge, the mobile-home escort ladder, the police-escort commodity trigger and the superload provisions.
    rev. · read
  • WEST VIRGINIA — Permit Information (Central Permit Office) — West Virginia Division of Highways, Central Permit Office — DATED ON ITS FACE "Revised 3-17-2023", and linked from the WVDOT hauling-permits page as "Updated 3/17/2023". Pages 5-6 carry the ESCORT REQUIREMENTS ladders for overwidth, overlength, overhang and overheight — the GENERAL-FREIGHT thresholds that 157 CSR 5 does not contain. It is DOH POLICY rather than a promulgated rule, and it binds downward only: "Districts and Parkway Authority may require additional escort or movement requirements, but never less than those listed above."
    rev. · read
  • West Virginia State Police — West Virginia State Police — Checked for an escort tariff and found none. The patrol publishes no statewide hourly, mileage or per diem schedule for commercial oversize escorts on its site or in the Code of State Rules.
    undated document · read
  • West Virginia Turnpike — Safety and assistance — West Virginia Parkways Authority — A DIFFERENT AGENCY from WVDOH. The Parkways Authority operates I-64/I-77 as the West Virginia Turnpike and publishes its own pilot-car rule, which 157 CSR 5 does not contain. UNDATED.
    undated document · read
  • WVDOT — Frequently asked questions, hauling permits — West Virginia Department of Transportation — UNDATED. Carries the statement that WVDOH publishes no route-by-route weight or clearance lists because every application is analysed dynamically — which is why the bridge fee cannot be predicted.
    undated document · read
  • WVDOT — Legal size and weight limits — West Virginia Department of Transportation — The per-route-class limit table. UNDATED — the page carries no publication or revision stamp. Every figure on it is corroborated below against W. Va. Code Chapter 17C, which is what makes it usable.
    undated document · read
  • WVDOT — Permit types and fees — West Virginia Department of Transportation — Source of the bridge-monitoring schedule. UNDATED. Restates the $20 base fee and $0.04 ton-mile charge in the same words as 157 CSR 5, which corroborates both.
    undated document · read
Common questions

Questions

How much is an oversize permit in West Virginia?

The single-trip base is $20, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.

When does West Virginia require a pilot car?

The first width trigger is 10'6" or more, and it varies by road class — the figure shown is the lowest across classes.

What is a superload in West Virginia?

West Virginia publishes no gross-weight superload threshold in the documents on file — see the superload section, which shows the dimensional triggers it does publish.

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