Statehouses regularly revisit how heavy trucks can roll.
Legislative efforts on truck weight often focus on a particular commodity, such as construction materials, agricultural products, or milk. In other instances, attention can be centered on increasing weight limits for all trucks.
Multiple states have acted this year to increase weight limits for certain types of trucks.
Despite some claims that increased truck size and weight limits provide benefits that include decreased congestion and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is opposed to heavier trucks.
OOIDA points out that studies conducted by the Transportation Research Board and the U.S. Department of Transportation validate concerns about heavier trucks.
Illinois
An Illinois truck weight bill headed to the governor authorizes heavier trucks powered by alternative fuels.
In 2015, Congress passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act. The act raised the weight limit for natural gas and electric battery-powered tractor-trailers to 82,000 pounds.
The federal act authorizes states to raise the weight limit on interstates within their borders.
The Illinois Senate voted 44-8 last month to advance legislation that would do the same for electric-powered trucks or hydrogen-fueled trucks. The state already permits the additional weight for natural gas-powered trucks.
Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, D-Shorewood, said it is a challenge to balance between clean energy and road damage.
“We’re trying to balance infrastructure transportation with trying to use alternative methods that can lower carbon emissions,” Loughran Cappel said on the Senate floor. “This is one way that one of the manufacturing businesses in my district has decided to help and have a greener footprint.”
Critics voiced concern that heavier trucks are causing more road damage without contributing more to the state’s road fund.
“Those trucks you were talking about are running diesel. They’re paying into the fund,” said Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville. “These trucks aren’t, right, and the same damage is being done to our bridges. The same culverts are being crushed. The same asphalt roads are being destroyed, and we’re not getting the funding to fix them.”
HB2394 next moves to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk. House lawmakers already approved the truck weight bill on a 75-37 vote.
Mississippi
Mississippi lawmakers acted earlier this year to address truck weight.
The new law directly benefits concrete and solid waste haulers.
The state increased the maximum gross truck weight for concrete haulers to 64,000 pounds. The rule applies to vehicles with three-axle configurations. The rule revision also applies to solid waste transport vehicles.
A maximum gross weight limit of 72,000 pounds is applied for vehicles with four-axle configurations.
The maximum axle distribution weight can be 22,000 pounds for any single axle; 48,000 pounds for any two-axle tandem; and 57,000 pounds for any three-axle tandem.
Nebraska
Milk haulers are the focus of a new Nebraska law.
LB561 creates a special permit to allow transporting raw milk from dairy farms to processing facilities to not exceed a gross weight of 107,5000 pounds.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation can grant an exception to the state’s 40-foot length rule for affected vehicles. The exception can be made if such length is “determined by NDOT to be reasonable and necessary to comply with all weight limits for single axles and groups of axles.”
Before Jan. 1, NDOT is responsible for creating a bridge map. The bridge map must show which bridges can support overweight raw-milk vehicles. Prohibited bridges that cannot hold the weight must also be identified.
The bridge map must be available on the agency’s website. The map must also be updated yearly.
Each overweight raw-milk vehicle is responsible to carry a physical or digital copy of the bridge map.
Any damage caused to a prohibited bridge by overweight raw-milk vehicles would be the financial responsibility of the hauler. LL
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