A. No person shall drive a vehicle over any bridge or other elevated structure constituting a part of a highway at a speed which is greater than the maximum speed which can be maintained with safety to the bridge or structure, when the structure is signposted as provided in this section.
B. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and local authorities may conduct an investigation of any bridge or other elevated structure constituting a part of a highway, and if they shall thereupon find that the structure cannot, with safety to itself, withstand vehicles driving at speeds otherwise permissible under Section 1-101 et seq. of this title, they shall determine and declare the maximum speed of vehicles which the structure can safely withstand, and may cause and permit suitable signs stating the maximum speed to be erected and maintained at a distance of one hundred feet before each end of the structure.
C. Where any state or federal highway or turnpike shall be under construction, maintenance, or repair or when a detour shall have been designated by reason of construction, maintenance, or repairs in progress and a maximum safe, careful, and prudent speed shall have been determined by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation on the highway or highway detour or by the Oklahoma Transportation Authority on the turnpike or turnpike detour during the period of the construction, maintenance, or repairs and shall have plainly posted by changeable message or other appropriate sign at each terminus thereof and at not less than each half mile along the route thereof the determined maximum speed, no person shall drive any vehicle upon the portion of the highway or the highway detour or upon the portion of the turnpike or the turnpike detour at a speed in excess of the speed so determined and posted. Violation of the posted speed limit in the repair, maintenance, or construction zone shall result in the doubling of the appropriate fine. For purposes of this section, "repair, maintenance, or construction zone" means any location where repair, maintenance, or construction work is actually in progress and workers present.
D. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority may post, by changeable message sign or other appropriate sign, a temporary reduced speed limit for special hazards with respect to pedestrians, other traffic, an accident, by reason of weather or when other hazardous highway conditions exist.
E. Upon the trial of any person charged with a violation of this section, proof of the determination of the maximum speed by the Department of Transportation or by the Oklahoma Transportation Authority and the existence of the signs shall constitute conclusive evidence of the maximum speed which can be maintained with safety as provided in subsections B , C and D of this section.
Added by Laws 1961, p. 385, § 11-806, eff. Sept. 1, 1961. Amended by Laws 1996, c. 127, § 1; Laws 2001, c. 202, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2001; Laws 2015, c. 294, § 2, eff. July 1, 2015.