A bill that would allow state transportation officials to raise speed limits 5 mph on certain rural roadways has hit a dead end.

The state Senate previously approved the proposal to allow – but not require – the Arizona Department of Transportation to raise the current 75 mph limit for all vehicles on interstate highways outside urban areas to 80 mph.

The Senate action sent the bill – SB1221 – to the House, where Transportation Committee Chairman Gary Pierce said he wouldn’t allow his committee to consider it, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

Pierce, R-Mesa, said he thought the bill was unnecessary and that he wanted to gut the measure and use it as a vehicle for a different piece of legislation. The other legislation would require ADOT to study the effectiveness of median barriers on the Arizona 101 freeway in Scottsdale.

“The bottom line is that the department can do a study of speed limits without legislation,” Pierce said. “Now if we’re trying to force them to do this, the bill doesn’t do that either.”

Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, the sponsor of the speed limit bill, told the newspaper the higher speed was worth considering.

Verschoor said Arizona had some roads with 80 mph speed limits before the 1970s. That was when a fuel shortage resulted in a federally mandated “double nickel” speed limit.

Congress has since permitted states to once again determine appropriate speeds.

“The cars are better built, the roads are better built, they are safer and better engineered,” he said.

ADOT has expressed reservations about the speed bill, and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety recently said a higher speed limit would increase the likelihood of serious accidents and fatalities.