Last night, a Senate-House conference committee approved language enabling both Maine and Vermont to conduct one-year pilot projects allowing heavier, six-axle trucks full access to the interstate highways within their borders. In September, the Senate passed Sen. Collins’ (R-Maine) provision in the Fiscal Year 2010 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill, but it was not part of the bill passed by the House. The Conference Committee included both the Collins amendment and a similar one by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in the final version of the legislation, which must receive final approval from both the House and Senate. The action is generally favored by business and the local communities where trucks are diverted off the interstates. Some proponents say it will reduce overall traffic fatalities. Opponents say the bigger trucks will wear down the interstates faster and could actually increase the total number fatal accidents.
John Runyan, executive director of the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, issued the following statement:
“The conference committee’s approval of both Sen. Collins’ and Sen. Leahy’s truck weight pilot projects is a significant step toward improving highway safety and transportation efficiency in Maine, Vermont and the rest of the nation.
“Both pilot projects would harmonize federal and state weight limits, giving trucks full access to interstate systems engineered for commercial vehicles rather than forcing them onto rural roads that wind through small towns. In Vermont, heavier trucks traveling from Canada would no longer need to leave the interstate. And in Maine, heavier trucks traveling on a portion of I-95 known as the Maine Turnpike would no longer be forced back onto secondary roads when they reach Augusta. In fact, consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates found that opening Maine’s interstates to heavier vehicles would eliminate three fatal crashes per year.
“Not only would the pilot project improve highway safety in Maine and Vermont, but it would create greener roads and a stronger economy. Northeastern producers could consolidate freight on fewer trucks to cut shipping costs and minimize both their fuel use and emissions. The projects will also ease shipment to and from Canada, which already has higher weight limits.
“Most importantly, the pilot project would prove to the rest of the nation that raising the vehicle weight limit for six-axle trucks is a wise way to confront dramatic freight increases and support greener, more efficient shipping. CTP encourages Congress to pass the final bill.”
The Coalition for Transportation Productivity (CTP) is a coalition of more than 140 shippers and allied associations dedicated to addressing the safety, economic and environmental challenges facing our nation’s freight transportation network.
CTP supports the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act of 2009 (H.R. 1799), sponsored by Reps. Michael Michaud (D-ME) and Jean Schmidt (R-OH). The bill would give each state the option to increase its interstate vehicle weight limit to 97,000 pounds for trucks equipped with a sixth axle for safety. The additional axle maintains current braking capacity and weight-per-tire-distribution and minimizes pavement wear. Under the legislation, shippers could more fully fill their rigs to boost shipping efficiency without changing truck size. Additionally, a user fee imposed by the bill would fund vital bridge repair.
Meanwhile, opponents issued this statement:
Truck crash victims and survivors today issued a warning to New England motorists regarding the insertion of an amendment to the federal transportation appropriations bill that will allow 108,000 to 120,000-pound tractor-trailers to operate on interstate roads and bridges in Vermont and 100,000-pound trucks on all Maine Interstate highways. The current Vermont standard for truck weights is 80,000 pounds gross weight, as established by federal law.
Given the already deplorable condition of Vermont roads, this legislative action is a highly regressive public policy that will hasten the deterioration of Vermont interstate highways and bridges while threatening the safety of everyone on Vermont's roads by allowing big tractor-trailer rigs to pile on additional tens of thousands of pounds of extra weight.
That extra weight has already been proven to dramatically accelerate infrastructure deterioration in a New England state that already has a woefully under-funded highway program and both roads and bridges that are rated as extremely poor by both the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and The Road Information Program. ASCE found that almost 40 percent of Vermont's bridges were deficient or obsolete, one of the worst records of bridge condition and safety in the nation. Trucks weighing 120,000 pounds on Vermont's interstate bridges will demolish old, unrepaired Vermont bridges at a frightening rate, according to the findings of studies released by the National Academy of Sciences. This kind of dramatic leap in truck gross weight can trigger a catastrophic bridge collapse.
The Truck Safety Coalition, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, Parents Against Tired Truckers, and other safety groups expressed their grave concerns about this exemption that was quietly inserted in the bill without an opportunity for a single public hearing on the public safety and infrastructure dangers of overweight trucks in these states.
"Motorists in Maine and Vermont deserve more than being human guinea pigs in this dangerous experiment," said John Lannen, Executive Director of the Truck Safety Coalition. "A report back to Congress on the effectiveness of this one-year program isn't even due for two years, which leads us to believe that this experiment will likely continue until the report is issued and analyzed by Congress."
Each year, about 5,000 people are killed and more than 100,000 are injured in truck crashes. The chances of a big truck crash resulting in deaths and serious injuries increase with each extra ton of weight over the 80,000 pound gross vehicle weight limit in federal law. A big truck weighing even a legal 80,000 pounds is 50 to 100 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a truck weighing 50,000 to 65,000 pounds. (University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), 1988; Federal Highway Administration, 1997)
A 100,000 pound truck takes 25 percent longer to stop than an 80,000 pound truck and a 120,000 pound truck can travel as much as 50 percent further before stopping than an 80,000 pound truck, especially if these big trucks have unadjusted brakes. (UMTRI, 1983; Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2003; National Academy of Sciences 1990; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2004; Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance 2000)
"These special interest exemptions clearly threaten the lives of everyone using Maine and Vermont's interstates and will have regional and nationwide ramifications leading to increased deaths and injuries and accelerated destruction of our nation's infrastructure," said Julie Magnan of Burlington, Vermont, who survived a semi-tractor trailer crash that killed her husband in 2002. "Vermont and Maine families may pay with their lives and their wallets because of this reckless action by Congress. Vermont will now be used as a principal trucking corridor from Boston to Canada, which will lead to more trucks on our roads and increased costs to maintain our interstates and bridges."
"Allowing much heavier trucks on old, worn-out bridges in Maine and Vermont could result in another catastrophic bridge collapse like the one on I-35 in Minneapolis in June 2007," Magnan added. "Dozens of people could die from a major bridge failure in either state."
More than 1 out of 3 of Vermont's roads are currently in poor or mediocre condition. Driving on roads needing repairs in Vermont already costs the state's motorists $167 million each year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs - a hefty $296 price tag for each motorist. Motor vehicle crashes in Vermont cost the state $221 million each year in medical costs, lost productivity, travel delays, and workplace, insurance, and legal costs. [The Road Information Program (TRIP)]
The safety advocates also pointed out that increasing truck size and weight will not decrease the number of truck trips, result in fewer truck miles traveled, or improve safety by reducing the number of trucks on the highways. Past increases in truck size and weight have not resulted in fewer trucks, fewer trips or fewer miles traveled. The number of trucks on U.S. highways has consistently grown over the past few decades even after several increases in both the sizes and weights of large trucks. [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 2004 and 2003]
Large, extra-heavy trucks are highly fuel inefficient. The U.S. DOT found that a 5- or 6-axle semi-trailer combination truck weighing 100,000 pounds, rather than 80,000 pounds, suffered a 10.4 percent reduction in diesel fuel mileage -- a serious policy and environmental issue given the increasing scarcity of petroleum and skyrocketing diesel fuel prices. [Western Uniformity Scenario Analysis, (U.S. DOT), 2004]
"The public understands the dangers of driving on the roads with overweight trucks and the roadway and bridge damage caused by them all too well," said the Truck Safety Coalition's John Lannen. A recent national survey conducted by the Truck Safety Coalition found that 2 out of 3 Americans oppose the trucking industry's efforts to allow trucks that would carry heavier loads on U.S. highways."
Source: CTP. Truck Safety Coalition. 12.10.2009