New law requires escort vehicle drivers to be registered

An escort vehicle follows a overwidth/overweight vehicle .

A new law passed by the Kansas Legislature went into effect on Jan. 1 that requires escort vehicle companies/service providers working with overwidth/overweight vehicles to be registered with the Kansas Secretary of Transportation, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.

The statute states that escort vehicle drivers must be registered, successfully complete an escort vehicle training course, and have a valid driver’s license. There is no fee to register or to renew a registration. Registration is valid for one year.

“This change has added requirements between the escorts and the oversize/overweight vehicles, which will help improve safety and communication so there is a better understanding of the routes to be used and where everyone should be when moving these loads,” said Dominique Shannon, KDOT Bridge Evaluation Engineer. 

KDOT worked with agency partners and law enforcement on the registration requirements for escort vehicle service providers. Starting this month, if an overwidth/overweight vehicle gets stopped for any reason by a law enforcement officer, the officer may verify that any driver escorting the overwidth/overweight vehicle is registered to operate in Kansas.

“If a driver escorting an overwidth/overweight vehicle is not registered, the officer may require the load to stop until it has a registered escort driver,” Shannon said.

To register as an escort vehicle service provider, visit the K-TRIPS website at www.k-trips.com and create a user account. After a user account is created, all required registration information for the vehicles and the drivers can be entered through the Company Data. To ask questions or for more details, there is a live chat option on the website or call 785-368-6501 during business hours.

Special Delivery: Large aircraft transported across multiple states requires extra planning

The F-35 production aircraft made its way through South Central Kansas and Wichita on Monday, Aug. 21 

It was a long but successful trip as Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas, provided an F-35 production aircraft to the National Institute for Aircraft Research in Wichita as part of an aircraft disassembly program.

This is a non-flying production aircraft, and as such, required transportation over the road on a specially-designed fixture/trailer. The aircraft has been disassembled to the smallest dimension possible, but the aircraft still requires an oversize permit for transport through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The fuselage and shipping fixture weighs approximately 27,000 pounds. It is 48 feet long, 35.5 feet wide and 9.5 feet high. The aircraft’s travel route started in Ft. Worth on Aug. 19 and entered Oklahoma on Aug. 20. It traveled through Kansas on Aug. 21 along U.S. 77, K-15 and I-135 until it reached its final destination 2.5 miles east of Valley Center before noon.

The F-35 production aircraft made its way through South Central Kansas and Wichita on Monday, Aug. 21 

“They had a pretty good escort from the KHP and some other law enforcement officers, as well as our own KDOT maintenance folks,” said Wichita Metro Engineer Don Snyder. “ All of the on ramps were properly blocked off to keep the load moving down the road without any interference from other traffic.”

KDOT’s Director of Aviation Merrill Atwater said that transporting an aircraft of this size doesn’t happen very often in this part of the country.

“The aircraft is incredible,” Atwater said.  “How cool is it that we had the opportunity to help manage the logistics for taking an aircraft across about one-third of our state without any hiccups? That’s a lot of coordination and effort and those involved in the planning process deserve big kudos for getting that done.”