Highway weight limits

After the recent articles in the Bangor Daily News about the fatal log-truck crash in Dixmont, one might think the state would take some serious measures to correct this hazardous sitaution with some immediate effective action. It might contemplate placing weight limits on all our roads, promote other means of transportation for heavy bulk materials, and develop plans in five-year increments to reconstruct all of our roads with dedicated funds over a period of time. A project such as this would also provide more jobs for a lot of Maine people.

What has been the response of our public officials to all of this? Many of them have been on a crusade for years to have the weight limit on the interstate system in Maine increased from 80,000 pounds (40 tons), so even larger logging trucks could use that system. However, the interstate system was not built for the state, it was built and funded under federal control to facilitate travel between the states and is not part of any state system.

State control of the interstate system would cause its ruination within 10 years. If someone wants to use the interstate to haul logs it is only required that the load be limited to 40 tons. This would not eliminate the problem because the overweight trucks would still have to travel over state roads in order to reach the interstate. Someone suggested a uniform road limit on all highways in the state including the interstate. It seems logical that the uniform limit could not be higher than the poorest road in the state.

The reason the state has such poor roads is that politicians will not bite the bullet. They must leave dedicated highway funds

alone, institute weight limits on all state roads, provide adequate roads to rail heads and start a road-building, not resurfacing, program with time goals to bring them up to modern design standards. Most paper mills in this state already have rail lines available to them.

I predict, however, that none of the above wil; happen and that in the next five years there will be more horror shows involving overloaded trucks on the sharp curves and steep inclines of Maine roads. Paul Hanson Argyle