Houston oversize load permits: who issues them, and the curfew and height rules

An oversize load moving through Houston can need permits from three offices. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) permits the state highways. The City of Houston permits its own streets. Harris County permits its county roads. On top of those, the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Houston District sets limits on named highways, ramps and toll lanes. Permigo, a permit service based in Houston, files the TxDMV permit. Permigo has filed more than 100 Texas permits for Houston loads so far in 2026.

The short version

TxDMV’s permit covers the state highways, I-610 included. The City of Houston’s Oversize Load Permit covers city streets: 48 hours’ notice, $103 minimum. Harris County requires its own permit, backed by a bond, on county roads. On the highways inside the 610 Loop, loads top out at 14 feet high. TxDMV sets no curfew for Houston or Harris County; on city streets, the City’s permit may set its own hours. Permigo files the TxDMV permit for $20. Permigo read every source here on October 12, 2026.

Texas’s size limits, escorts and travel hours are on the Texas page.

Who issues which permit for a Houston move

It depends on whose road the load is on. On state highways, only TxDMV’s permit counts: Texas law bars cities and counties from requiring their own permit, bond or fee there, unless the Transportation Code allows it (§621.304). Off them, a city may regulate oversize moves on its roads (§621.303), and a county may permit them on county roads outside city limits (§623.018). Every TxDMV single-trip permit says so in its general conditions: “This permit does not authorize travel on non-state maintained roadways (i.e., city streets and county roads).”

The TxDMV permit: what Permigo files

TxDMV’s single-trip permit covers a load that can’t be taken apart and is over Texas’s legal size or weight, up to 254,300 pounds. It is good for one movement, from a named origin to a named destination, during the times printed on it. Over 20 feet wide, 18 feet 11 inches high or 125 feet long, TxDMV wants a route inspection on file before it issues the permit.

Permigo files the TxDMV permit for a flat $20, with Texas’s own fee passed on at cost. Texas’s fee is in the cost guide. The City and Harris County permits stay with the carrier; Permigo doesn’t file them.

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Do you need a City of Houston oversize permit?

Yes, on city streets. TxDMV’s list of jurisdictions with their own rules says: “A Houston City permit is required for all oversize/overweight vehicles to travel on Houston city streets.” On the state highways through Houston, the TxDMV permit is the one that counts (§621.304).

The City calls it the Oversize Load Permit. Houston Public Works issues it, through its Right of Way – Traffic and Mobility office. The City wants the request at least 48 hours before the day of the move, with a route map. The fee is a minimum of $103, and the City says it “varies higher”.

Does Harris County require its own permit?

Yes, for county roads. Harris County’s Office of the County Engineer lists “Oversize & Overweight” among its permits, and the filing itself is called an Oversize-Overweight Right-of-Way Notification. State law lets a county permit loads on its own roads, though not on state highways or on roads inside a city (§623.018).

The county wants a new bond on its own form; an existing bond isn’t accepted.

The county’s page gives a processing time of 15 business days, and says it intends to approve within 10. It says an approval is valid for six months, though state law caps a county permit at 90 days (§623.018(b)); the county can say which applies. Two TxDMV permits are largely exempt: for a vehicle on the annual permit for excess axle or gross weight, or on the port container permit, the county can’t require a weight permit, a filing or a bond, apart from the bond state law sets for the annual permit (§623.018(d)). A single-trip permit isn’t one of them.

Houston District limits: the 610 Loop, toll lanes and ramps

Inside the 610 Loop, loads on the highways top out at 14 feet high; on I-610 itself the limit is 20 feet, lower at the SH 225 interchange. These are restrictions TxDOT’s Houston District ordered, and TxDMV publishes the restrictions of every district. The Houston District’s sheet, updated September 29, 2026, holds 144 of them across six counties. Here are the district-wide ones, and those on Houston’s main highways and toll roads (TxDOT writes the interstates as IH 610, IH 45 and so on). Permitted loads can’t use most of the toll main lanes: not the SH 99 Grand Parkway’s from the Fort Bend/Harris County line to the Harris/Liberty County line, where they take the frontage roads, and not most of Beltway 8’s, the Sam Houston Tollway.

TxDMV puts the job of checking the latest restrictions on the permit holder. The Signal Shop notice for a load 17 feet 6 inches or taller is the carrier’s, not Permigo’s. Neither Harris County’s nor Fort Bend County’s toll road authority publishes an oversize policy of its own that Permigo could find (checked October 12, 2026).

Is there a Houston curfew for oversize loads?

Not from TxDMV. Its Time Permit Curfews sheet, effective September 30, 2025, names no curfew for Houston or Harris County; the five it lists nearby are in the table below. That sheet covers time permits: 30, 60 and 90-day permits for length or width, quarterly hubometer permits and a list of annual permits. A single-trip permit prints its own curfews, under “Route Conditions”, for the roads on its route. In Permigo’s experience, the single-trip permits it files for loads through Houston, more than 100 so far in 2026, carry no Houston curfew.

City streets are another matter. They need the City of Houston’s own permit, and the City’s permit page says nothing about hours. That permit may set its own times. Permigo doesn’t file it, so it can’t say what the City prints; ask Houston Public Works (contacts below).

Three permits Permigo filed in 2025, and the curfews TxDMV printed on them:

If you have read that Houston bars oversize loads from 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. on weekdays: TxDMV does print those hours, for Tarrant County, around Fort Worth. A permit Permigo filed on September 22, 2025, from Gainesville to Corpus Christi, reads: “Tarrant County Curfew: All loads over 8'6" wide, 14'0" high, and/or over legal length: No movement 7-9am or 4-6pm; Monday through Friday.”

The statewide rules still apply. Permitted loads move in daylight only. The exceptions are loads that are only overweight, and interstate loads up to 10 feet wide and 100 feet long with legal overhangs (43 TAC §219.11). Loads over 14 feet wide, 16 feet high or 110 feet long can’t move on six holidays: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Near Houston, TxDMV’s sheet lists five curfews, all on weekdays:

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Port Houston: the container permit

TxDMV issues an annual permit, $6,000, for sealed intermodal containers moving within 30 miles of Port Houston’s Barbours Cut and I-610 terminals, Bayport or Port Freeport. It allows 93,000 pounds on six axles or 100,000 on seven. It doesn’t cover interstates, or load-posted roads and bridges when the load is over the posted limit, and each toll road needs its authority’s approval.

TxDMV says the permit “may only be self-issued through TxPROS”, its online permit system, and issues it in the carrier’s company name. Permigo doesn’t file it. Oversize cargo that isn’t in a sealed container, such as breakbulk leaving the port, moves on a regular single-trip permit, which Permigo does file.

Example: one Houston move, three permits

An invented load: an excavator 13 feet wide and 14 feet 6 inches high, from a dealer’s yard on a Houston city street to a job site on a Harris County road outside city limits.

• TxDMV, for the state highways in between. Permigo files it. At 14 feet 6 inches, the route can’t use the highways inside I-610.
• The City of Houston, for the city streets out of the yard, requested 48 hours ahead.
• Harris County, for the county road to the site, with the county’s bond.

At 13 feet wide the load is under the 20-foot line for law-enforcement escorts. Texas’s own escort rules for that width are on the Texas page.

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Who to call

Next: Texas permit and escort rules →