H7870

	2026 -- H 7870
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	LC005111
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	STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
	IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
	JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2026
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	A N A C T
	RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES -- DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL CODE
	PROVISIONS

	Introduced By: Representatives Hull, Bennett, Biah, Shallcross Smith, and Azzinaro
	Date Introduced: February 27, 2026
	Referred To: House Corporations
	(Dept. of Transportation)
	It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
1	SECTION 1. Section 31-1-9 of the General Laws in Chapter 31-1 entitled "Definitions and
2	General Code Provisions" is hereby amended to read as follows:
3	31-1-9. Mobile equipment.
4	“Mobile equipment” means every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the
5	transportation of persons or property and only incidentally operated or moved over a highway,
6	including but not limited to: ditch digging apparatus, well boring apparatus, and road construction
7	or maintenance machinery such as asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, tractors
8	other than truck tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, road rollers,
9	scarifiers, earth moving carry-alls and scrapers, power shovels and drag lines, and self-propelled
10	cranes and earth moving equipment. The term does not include house trailers, dump trucks, truck
11	mounted transit mixers, cranes, or shovels, or other vehicles designed for the transportation of
12	persons or property to which machinery has been attached. For the purposes of this section
13	"incidentally" means actively participating in work in an active work zone, or crossing a highway
14	within a work zone. This does not include travelling down a highway under their own power.
15	SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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	LC005111
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	EXPLANATION
	BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
	OF
	A N A C T
	RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES -- DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL CODE
	PROVISIONS
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1	This act would clarify when mobile equipment can travel on a public highway as an
2	incidentally permitted practice limited to the active participation in an active work zone.
3	This act would take effect upon passage.
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	LC005111
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	LC005111 - Page 2 of 2