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Heavier trucks would cost taxpayers $40M

Industry says measure would boost revenue.

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By Steve Bennish  and Lauren Pack, Staff Writers Updated 9:40 PM Thursday, February 2, 2012

State and local bridges aren’t ready for pending moves by Congress that could allow heavier trucks on U.S. roads and quickly hit taxpayers with a $40 million bill, county engineers said.

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today is scheduled to vote to allow heavier trucks on the roads — up to 97,000 pounds for single-trailer trucks and 100,000 pounds for double- and triple-trailer trucks.

It’s the biggest weight hike in memory, according to county engineers. The limit is now 80,000 pounds. County engineers would be required to retest all local bridges and post new load limits, racking up the millions in compliance costs, they said. Meanwhile, trucking firms would cut costs by fielding fewer drivers and trucks.

Butler County Engineer Greg Wilkens said the weight increase comes at the same time state funding is stagnant for road repairs and construction.

“So we are getting squeezed from both sides,” he said.

Of the 400 bridges Butler County is responsible for, only one has a load limit posting. Wilkens said heavier trucks would increase that number to at least five.

“It will also cause other bridges to deteriorate faster,” Wilkens said, noting Butler County is a trucking hub due to Interstate 75.

“But we are not just talking about bridges here, it will mean more wear on road pavement,” Wilkens said. “The detrimental effects will not be realized immediately ... the added cost to resurfacing will effect budgets in years to come.”

Fredrick B. Pausch, executive director of the County Engineers Association of Ohio, said “This is an all-out assault on the current weight and length limits that help protect the safety of all drivers, and our roads and bridges.”

To make matters worse, Pausch said, Ohio bridges have not been adequately maintained with 22 percent of the nearly 26,000 bridges in the county road system structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Darrin Roth, director of highway operations for the American Trucking Association, said the legislation only applies to federal highways and that states still have the option to restrict heavier trucks.

As written, the bill known as the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012 would allow the Department of Transportation to study a fee assessment on trucks that should offset additional road and bridge wear. Roth said the higher weight limit should create fuel savings and cut back on overall costs to shippers because fewer trucks would be on the road. Additional truck axles would be required to raise the weight above the current maximum, reducing road wear.

“We will still be moving tremendous freight in the future,” he said. “We will still need to hire more drivers. It’ll just grow at a slower rate,” Roth said.

Citing Ohio Revised Code, Roth said that the state already allows trucks hauling coal, farm products, logs, solid waste, minerals, asphalt, concrete, manure, turf, sod, silage, and various wood products to operate off the Interstate system at 7.5 percent above legal limits.

But a group of small-business truckers, the 150,000-member Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, condemned the legislation, calling it the product of “big business interests.”

“Truck drivers know first hand that heavier and longer trucks are much harder to maneuver and put additional stress on our already deteriorating highways and bridges,” Todd Spencer, the association’s Executive Vice President said. He said heavier trucks will require more length and time to merge on to highways than current on-ramp designs allow. He added that “traffic flow will be interrupted and the resulting speed differentials could increase the chances for collisions.”

The last increase in the federal highway gas tax was in 1993, Pausch said, and the cost to repair and maintain roads and bridges under current conditions exceeds federal funding. Pausch noted that congressional committee members include Ohio Reps Bob Gibbs R-Holmes County, and Jean Schmidt, R-Clermont County.

A spokesman for Schmidt’s office said a federal study found that raising truck weights could cut road repair expenses because fewer trucks would be on the road.

Last year, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some of Georgia’s largest companies were lobbying state and federal officials to raise weight limits on highways in the states, a move they say would help the economy and the environment. A coalition of major shippers, including Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and International Paper, wanted the weight limits raised.

There have been previous attempts to raise the weight limit, all of them unsuccessful, Pausch said.

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