Bill aims for pilot program on commercial trucker safety

FREEPORT – Town Council Chairman John Arsenault has been keeping a close eye on the commercial tractor-trailers rumbling by on Main Street.

Because of federal weight regulations, as many as five trucks an hour are being forced to take Route 1, which becomes Freeport’s Main Street, instead of Interstate 95, Arsenault said.

He worries that tired truckers, many of them hauling jet fuel, heating oil, milk and freight, could cause an accident. He’s also concerned about pollution and road wear.

Arsenault has been leading an effort to repeal a federal law that prohibits trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds from using Maine’s interstate highway system. The weight limit on the Maine Turnpike is 100,000 pounds.

Trucks that weigh more than 80,000 pounds must use secondary roads that run parallel to Interstate 95.

Now, members of Maine’s congressional delegation are sponsoring legislation that would create the commercial truck safety pilot program.

Under the legislation sponsored by U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and U.S. Reps. John Baldacci and Tom Allen, a maximum weight limit of 100,000 pounds would apply to the interstate for three years. Then the state Department of Transportation would evaluate the program.

The Maine Department of Transportation approves of the pilot program because it would cut down on wear and tear on local roads and would put large trucks on roads that were engineered for such use.

“There’s a groundswell of support for this from the trucking industry, Maine Municipal Association and from many towns,” said Robert D. Elder, director of freight transportation for the state Transportation Department. “This legislation would take the big trucks out of their downtowns.”