Waiver to keep jet fuel cargo off local roads

WASHINGTON – The Federal Highway Administration has granted a waiver allowing trucks transporting jet fuel to the Air National Guard Base at Bangor International Airport to use Interstate 95 between Augusta and Bangor instead of state and local roads.

“The waiver granted today will keep these dangerous shipments of jet fuel off Maine’s largely two-lane, two-way, state and local roads and highways between Augusta and Bangor,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in announcing the waiver. “With the current crisis at hand, shipments of jet fuel have increased tremendously as did the risk to small communities along secondary roads. This waiver will keep these trucks rolling along a highway that’s better equipped to handle the load.”

A Collins amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe and approved by Congress late last year, specifically authorized the waiver granted by the FHA Thursday. Collins worked to secure the waiver after shipments of jet fuel to the base at BIA tripled.

Federal restrictions on weight limits were causing the truck shipments to leave the Maine Turnpike at Exit 30 in Augusta, proceed down Western Avenue, and through both rotaries onto Routes 9 and 202.

The provision grants the Secretary of Transportation the authority, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to waive the application of vehicle weight limitations during a period of national emergency.