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Possible higher truck weight limits concern state officials Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Facing a $19 billion shortfall for state highways over the next decade, Arkansas highway officials are carefully monitoring trucking industry lobbyists' efforts to get Congress to increase weight limits on roads. The industry is lobbying federal lawmakers to increase the 80,000-pound maximum weight on interstate highways to meet greater demand for over-the-road transport. Some lawmakers say there are too many state-level exemptions and too little federal enforcement for the weight standard established 26 years ago to be effective. The trucking industry cites a federal study that concluded allowing 97,000-pound, six-axle trucks on highways would reduce truck miles and accident exposure by 11 percent. Such an increase could hasten the deterioration of roads, Randy Ort, spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said Tuesday. But some trucking industry officials say an increase is necessary to reduce future highway congestion, the nation's reliance on foreign oil, carbon emissions and the costs of goods and transportation. "We know that our economy is going to grow exponentially over the next 20 years and we're going to reach a point where the public must decide if it wants even more trucks on the highway, meaning more congestion, or whether they would consider putting more stuff in each truck," said Lane Kidd, spokesman for the Arkansas Trucking Association. The industry is asking Congress to allow use of the triple trailer configuration, which some western states allow, according to Kidd. The trailers would be no longer than 28 feet, and the configuration could be used only on four-lane interstate highways in dry driving conditions during the daylight hours with rigid speed limit controls, he said. Trucking companies also want Congress to allow states to set up new registration fees and requirements for tractor-trailer rigs to haul an additional 17,000 pounds as long as additional axles are installed, he said. "Increased weights can potentially damage highways, but an additional axle could mitigate some of the extra weight," Ort said. Ort said the highway department knew too little about the proposal to take a stance. Arkansas increase the truck-weight limit from 73,280 pounds to 80,000 pounds in 1983. Many of Arkansas' interstates were built in the 1950s, when the weight limit was either 56,000 pounds or 64,000 pounds, Ort said. The department recently completed a $1 billion rehabilitation and reconstruction effort on more than half of the state's interstate highway miles. "The interstates in Arkansas had outlived their useful life," Ort said, noting that increased truck weight could have been responsible for some of the deterioration. Increasing weight restrictions to 97,000 pounds would lessen the total amount of wear on roads by decreasing traffic, but would accelerate wear on bridges, said Steve Williams, CEO of Maverick USA Inc., which operates 1,500 trucks in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Should the weight limit increase be allowed, trucking companies also would have to increase capital spending, Williams said, but hauling 97,000 pounds on six axles would be 17 percent more fuel efficient, he said. "It's appropriate that we pay a higher highway use tax for the use of this more productive vehicle because, make no mistake, the more productive vehicle does have incremental bridge wear," Williams said. Not all companies support the proposal. Some companies that do not usually haul the current maximum weight limit fear they also may have to pay higher fees and taxes for the ability to haul 97,000 pounds, even though they might never do that, Kidd said. The proposal asks to spare those companies from any increased costs, he said. |
