An independent scientific review of the Department of Transportation’s truck size-and-weight study largely agreed with original researchers that weaknesses in some of their research models and data hampered meaningful conclusions.

The federal Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Limits Study, originally scheduled to be completed this month, will be delayed until 2015, officials said.

Federal government and university researchers said they are on schedule to complete a congressionally mandated truck size and weight study by mid-November.

In legal proceedings, we often hear about the burden of proof — implying that facts and data are weighty things that can hold a person down.

A special steering committee of the National Conference on Weights and Measures has recommended that compressed and liquefied natural gas be sold in terms of gasoline and diesel gallon equivalents.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration amended its definition of “gross combination weight rating” to clarify enforcement practices when single-unit trucks are towing trailers.

Allowing higher truck weights on interstate highways and helping captive shippers who use the railroads would promote freight mobility and make American companies more competitive globally, representatives of large shippers told a special U.S. House panel exploring freight issues.

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.