LA GRANDE — Cities across Oregon can now apply for the authority to designate speed limits on their roads, thanks to a new state law.

House Bill 3055 was passed last year by the Oregon Legislature and the law allows all 241 Oregon cities — plus two counties — to start the process of designate their own speed limits. Many cities across Northeast Oregon are not pressing down on the accelerator for the authority and Oregon Department of Transportation Region 5 Manager Ken Patterson believes it will most likely be the larger jurisdictions who apply.

“I don’t really expect to see a lot of our local communities out here doing it outside of ODOT,” he said.

Communities wanting to take advantage of the new law will need a professional engineer to go through training and become certified, according to ODOT’s Public Information Officer Don Hamilton. The training includes state speed zone practices, state laws, federal requirements and how to create a quality control plan. The plan includes outlining and documenting the investigation process, producing a speed zone order and listing what equipment will be used for measuring roadway and speed data, according to ODOT’s Speed Zone Manual.

The engineer would then be responsible for reviewing and making final decisions on speed zone change requests within the city.

La Grande has not had many requests for speed zone changes in the last couple of years and will be sticking with ODOT’s process, according to La Grande Public Works Director Kyle Carpenter.

“I don’t think we would be interested in doing so,” he said.

Union is in a similar position, according to Public Works Lead Paul Phillips. The city has received very few requests for speed zone changes and when speed issues do arise they deploy a digital radar that displays current driving speeds.

Elgin Public Works Director Tyler Crook did not wish to comment on the city’s plans.

Oregon roads have two kinds of speed limits — statutory and designated. Statutory speed limits are set by state laws, such as 25 mph in residential areas, 20 mph in school zones or 65 mph on most interstates. Designated speed limits are set by an engineering investigation. All designated speed limits, whether set by ODOT or by cities, will adhere to the same guidelines and procedures.

Currently all changes in speed limits go through the state’s traffic roadway engineer and the process is lengthy. The department only has one investigator for each of its five regions and cases are backlogged anywhere from six months to a year. Allowing cities to set their own speed zones will make the process faster for everyone, according to Hamilton.

“The whole idea of this process is that giving cities this authority will make the process quicker, more effective and more responsive to local needs,” he said.