Super-Heavy Trucks Can Stay on U.S. 41
On his way out the door toward retirement, Rep. Thomas Petri (R-Wis.) included a technical provision in “Cromnibus” that allows trucks to keep using U.S. 41, the main highway between Milwaukee and Green Bay.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has been investing in U.S. 41 in order to get it classified as part of the nation’s interstate system and asked Congress for this language.
Petri was joined by three other members of the state’s congressional delegation in producing the addition to the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, known as the Cromnibus.
A Dec. 11 statement from Petri’s office said the legislator has been trying to get U.S. 41 promoted to interstate status since the 1990s.
The main effect of the new law will be for super-heavy rigs with gross-combined-vehicle weight in excess of 80,000 pounds, the standard weight limit for interstate highways.
Extra-heavy trucks that currently ply the route between the two major Wisconsin cities may keep doing so after U.S. 41 becomes an interstate.
The provision also was supported by Rep. Reid Ribble and Sen. Ron Johnson, both Republicans, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat.
