House Letter Asks DOT to Consider Size, Weight Effect on Local Roads, Bridges

Forty-five members of the U.S. House sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx asking that the truck size and weight study the federal government is conducting address the effect that heavier or longer trucks would have on local roads and bridges.

Local transportation networks are built to lower standards than interstate highways — with narrower and shorter roads — so the Department of Transportation must consider that when assessing the impact of heavier or longer trucks, the lawmakers wrote.

“Trucks pick up, drop off and refuel on city streets and county roads every day,” the letter said. “Travel by heavier and longer configuration over these streets and roads could have significant impacts on infrastructure condition, environmental quality and traffic patterns.”

DOT confirmed that it received the letter, sent late last week, and a department spokesman said it would respond directly to the members of Congress that sent it.

The letter said that states are already unable to keep up with the infrastructure needs facing them.

“We are concerned that heavier or longer trucks could divert significant amounts of freight to highways, resulting in an increase in heavy truck traffic and increased costs to states and localities,” the lawmakers wrote.

The truck size and weight study grew out of an effort by the trucking industry last year to get a provision included in the transportation reauthorization bill to allow longer trucks to run on the nation’s highways.

For additional coverage, see the Aug. 19 print edition of Transport Topics.