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Spring thaw weight restrictions by state

Which states cut axle and gross weight during the spring thaw, what each one publishes, when we last read it, and a direct link to the state's own bulletin. A load that is legal on a road in July can be illegal on the same road in March.

The state's own page is the authority. This one is a mirror with a timestamp.

We never tell you a road is clear

We never tell you a road is clear. Restrictions are posted road by road and lift with a few days' notice, so we publish what each state's own document says, the date we read it, and the link. Where a state publishes only a map or a PDF we say so rather than inventing a limit from it, and where our copy is old we say how old and which way that errs.

Map

Alaska: No dataAKColorado: None in forceCOIdaho: No dataIDIllinois: None in forceILIndiana: None in forceINMaine: No dataMEMichigan: None in forceMIMinnesota: None in forceMNMissouri: None in forceMOMontana: No dataMTNorth Dakota: Restriction in forceNDNebraska: No dataNENew Jersey: None in forceNJNew York: None in forceNYOhio: None in forceOHPennsylvania: None in forcePASouth Dakota: No dataSDVirginia: None in forceVAWashington: No dataWAWisconsin: No dataWIWyoming: No dataWY
  • Restriction in force1
  • Announced0
  • None in force11
  • No data52

Select a state

Choose a state on the map or in the timeline. Without JavaScript, every state is listed below.

Season timeline 2026

  • Usual posting season
  • Restriction
  • Announced
  • Selected date

States that restrict the state highway system

12 states whose DOT posts and lifts restrictions on the roads it maintains. Each is polled on its own cadence, derived from that state's published season — a statute where one exists, otherwise its own bulletin history.

  • North Dakota
    i

    NDDOT publishes every restricted segment as GeoJSON with the order number, its effective time and the ton limit. This is the one state where we hold segment-level detail.

    Read 6 day(s) ago (2026-11-05). The document itself is dated 2026-06-24.

    NDDOT — North Dakota Load Restrictions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    4 restrictions in force
    Source
    GeoJSON feed · Machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-05
    Our pageState's page
  • Minnesota
    i

    Six frost zones, each with a published start and end date. MnDOT announces changes at least three days ahead, which is what makes a several-hour poll comfortably fast enough.

    Read 6 day(s) ago (2026-11-05). The document states no date of its own.

    MnDOT — Seasonal Load Limits: start and end dates

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    No restriction in force
    Source
    HTML table · Partly machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-05
    Our pageState's page
  • Michigan
    i

    Restrictions apply to routes marked "Seasonal" on the MDOT Truck Operators Map — a 25% axle-weight reduction on rigid pavement and 35% on flexible. Which pavement a given mile is, is a property of the road, not of the state, so we never compute the reduction ourselves.

    Read 6 day(s) ago (2026-11-05). The document itself is dated 2026-05-15.

    MDOT — Spring Weight Restriction Bulletins

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    No restriction in force
    Source
    HTML bulletin · Partly machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-05
    Our pageState's page
  • Washington
    i

    Washington is one of the 21 states this engine already prices permits for, so a restriction here can change a quote we issue. The feed is a typed JSON API and carries a start and end date per restriction.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    WSDOT — Commercial vehicle route restrictions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    JSON API · Machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Wisconsin
    i

    Zone-based Class II restrictions of 6 tons single / 10 tons tandem, 24 tons gross. Announced by zone, and the same page also carries the frozen-road law, which moves in the opposite direction.

    Read 3 day(s) ago (2026-11-08). The document states no date of its own.

    WisDOT — Seasonal weight restriction programs

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    HTML table · Partly machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-08
    Our pageState's page
  • South Dakota
    i

    SDDOT sets and lifts restrictions from accumulated freeze/thaw indices and field observation, and announces each change by press release and on this page.

    Read 2 day(s) ago (2026-11-09). The document states no date of its own.

    South Dakota Truck Info — Spring Load Restrictions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    HTML bulletin · Partly machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-09
    Our pageState's page
  • Montana
    i

    Published through the statewide travel-information map rather than as a bulletin, so we link to it and watch it for change rather than claiming a parsed limit.

    Read 2 day(s) ago (2026-11-09). The document states no date of its own.

    MDT — Travel Information: restrictions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    Map viewer · Not machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-09
    Our pageState's page
  • Maine
    i

    Maine calls these posted roads rather than frost laws. The list covers state and state-aid highways and is republished as roads are added and released.

    Read 31 day(s) ago (2026-10-11). The document states no date of its own. Last attempt failed: HTTP 403 from Maine Department of Transportation

    MaineDOT — Posted Roads

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    HTML table · Partly machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-10-11
    Our pageState's page
  • Alaska
    i

    Break-up restrictions are issued regionally by DOT&PF. The season is later and longer than any lower-48 state, which is why this row has its own window rather than sharing the northern-tier default.

    Read 3 day(s) ago (2026-11-08). The document states no date of its own.

    Alaska DOT&PF — Measurement Standards & Commercial Vehicle Compliance

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    HTML bulletin · Not machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-08
    Our pageState's page
  • Idaho
    i

    Idaho publishes restrictions through the 511 traveller map. There is no bulletin document to cite, so we watch the page and link to it.

    Read 3 day(s) ago (2026-11-08). The document states no date of its own.

    Idaho 511 — travel restrictions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    Map viewer · Not machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-08
    Our pageState's page
  • Nebraska
    i

    Restrictions are announced through the NDOT truck-permit pages rather than as a numbered bulletin series.

    Read 3 day(s) ago (2026-11-08). The document states no date of its own.

    NDOT — Truck permits and restrictions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    HTML bulletin · Not machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-08
    Our pageState's page
  • Wyoming
    i

    Published on the statewide road-conditions map. Wyoming restricts fewer miles than its neighbours because much of the state system is built on free-draining base.

    Read 3 day(s) ago (2026-11-08). The document states no date of its own.

    WYDOT — Wyoming Road Conditions

    Polled weekly (off season)
    Status
    Status unknown — check the state
    Source
    Map viewer · Not machine-readable
    Last readRead 2026-11-08
    Our pageState's page

States where the restriction is local, or absent

These are routinely listed as "frost law states", and for most of them that is true of the county roads and false of the state system. Knowing which it is decides who you have to call.

  • Ohio
    i

    ODOT does not impose spring weight restrictions on the state highway system. Ohio frost laws are posted by county engineers and township trustees on local roads, road by road, with no statewide list. Check the county engineer for the specific local roads on your route.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    OAC 5501:2-1-05 — ODOT special hauling permits

    Status
    Local roads only
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Indiana
    i

    INDOT does not seasonally restrict the state highway system. Indiana frost laws are posted by county highway departments on county roads.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    INDOT

    Status
    Local roads only
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Illinois
    i

    IDOT does not post spring weight restrictions on state highways. Illinois seasonal limits are set by county and township highway commissioners on local roads.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    IDOT — Oversize and overweight permits

    Status
    Local roads only
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Missouri
    i

    MoDOT runs no annual spring thaw programme. Missouri restrictions are local and episodic; MoDOT publishes any exceptional embargo on its motor-carrier notices page, which is the page linked here.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    MoDOT — Important notices for motor carriers

    Status
    Local roads only
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • New York
    i

    NYSDOT does not seasonally restrict the touring routes. New York frost laws are posted by towns and counties on local roads, typically for a few weeks in March and April.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    NYSDOT — Oversize/overweight permits

    Status
    Local roads only
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Pennsylvania
    i

    Pennsylvania regulates weak roads through YEAR-ROUND posting and bonding, not through a spring thaw season. A posted-and-bonded road is restricted in July as well as in March, so it is a routing question rather than a seasonal one.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    PennDOT

    Status
    Local roads only
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Colorado
    i

    CDOT runs no spring thaw weight programme. Colorado closes and chain-controls mountain routes in winter, which is a traction and closure question, not an axle-weight one.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    CDOT

    Status
    No seasonal programme
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • New Jersey
    i

    No spring thaw weight programme. New Jersey does not reach the sustained frost depth the northern tier restricts for.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    NJDOT — Oversize/overweight trucking

    Status
    No seasonal programme
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
  • Virginia
    i

    No spring thaw weight programme on the state system.

    We hold no current reading of this source.

    VDOT

    Status
    No seasonal programme
    Source
    No seasonal publication · Not machine-readable
    Last readNot read
    Our pageState's page
What this holds, and where it stops

Scope

A mirror with a timestamp is useful precisely because it says what it is not.

What it covers
21 US states, each named against its own issuing agency's publication — never an aggregator's summary of one. 12 have a state-system programme, 6 post only at county or township level, and 3 have no programme we can cite.
What it does not cover
It never says a road is clear — only what the state's document said when we read it. County and township postings are outside every statewide figure, and specific bridge or culvert postings are outside all of them. US states only: we hold no Canadian provincial seasonal data and publish none.
What it costs
Nothing, and no account. The same data is a JSON mirror at /api/tools/seasonal-restrictions so a dispatcher's own TMS can poll it, and the page renders in full from the compiled registry with the database unreachable.
How a state gets onto this page

How it works

  1. 1

    Name the state's own publication

    Every link is the issuing agency's. A commercial summary of a state bulletin is not a citation — it is somebody else's reading of one — so aggregators were used as a map to find these pages and appear nowhere in the data.

  2. 2

    Read it on that state's own clock

    The cadence comes from each source's published posting window, not from one global interval: 3-hourly in season, every 12 hours in the 14-day shoulder either side, weekly out of season.

  3. 3

    Print what it says — and what it does not

    Structured sources become dated restriction rows. A map, a status page or a PDF becomes "this changed, here is the link", because a row invented from a map tile is a guess wearing a citation. Every row carries both dates: the document's own, and ours.

Two things the aggregator lists get wrong

Why this one

Three classes of state, not one

"Which states have frost laws" has a worse answer than a single list suggests, and the wrong answer is expensive in both directions. Telling a dispatcher to watch a DOT bulletin that does not exist sends them looking in the wrong place; telling them the state has no frost laws sends them onto a posted county road.

A local-only row is data, not a gap. It answers "does my lane have a state frost-law problem?" with a cited no, and points at the county-level reality instead of inventing a state bulletin.

State-system programme
12 states
County or township only
6 states
No programme we can cite
3 states

The reading schedule is derived, not guessed

These sources are dormant for most of the year and then move several times a week for six weeks. One fixed interval has to be wrong at one end or the other, so each state's cadence comes from its own posting window — a statute where one exists, otherwise that state's observed bulletin history — and the window is recorded with its basis.

Every state's page prints the cadence it is on today and why, so the schedule is auditable rather than folkloric.

In season
every 3 hours
Shoulder, ±14 days
every 12 hours
Off season
every 7 days
FAQ

Questions

Which states are covered, and what does "covered" mean here?

All 21 states in our source registry, sorted into three classes. 12 have a state-system programme: the DOT itself posts and lifts restrictions on the roads it maintains. 6 are local-only: the state system carries no seasonal restriction and the posting is done by counties or townships under their own authority. 3 have no spring-thaw programme we can cite at any level. Every row names that state's own publication and links straight to it.

If a state shows no restriction, is the road clear?

No, and this page never says it is. What it publishes is what that state's own document said when we last read it, together with the date we read it. A restriction can be posted between two readings, and county and township roads sit outside every statewide figure. The state's own page is the authority; this one is a mirror with a timestamp.

How current is any of this?

Each source is read on a cadence derived from its own posting window rather than on one global interval: every 3 hours inside that window, every 12 hours in the 14 days either side of it, every 7 days the rest of the year, and never for a state with no programme to poll. Each state's own page prints the cadence it is on today, the date we last read the source, and the date the document itself states.

Why do some states show a list of restrictions and others only a link?

Because of what the state publishes, not how hard we tried. 4 of these sources are structured enough to yield dated restriction rows, so we parse them. 8 publish a rendered map, a status page or a PDF, and a row cannot be produced from those without guessing — so we do not guess: we read them on the same schedule, report when the document changed, and link it. Each state's page says which of the two it is.