OLD TOWN – One of the biggest gripes residents have had about the state’s purchase of Georgia-Pacific’s landfill in west Old Town is why trucks can’t use the interstate and instead must use secondary roads that go directly through communities.

The answer is simple: Federal laws restrict loads of more than 80,000 pounds from entering interstate roadways.

For years, Maine lawmakers have tried to change this restriction. And recently towns and cities along the routes to the landfill have sent letters and resolutions to state officials requesting the Interstate 95 weight limit be increased. The Penobscot County commissioners also penned a letter.

Officials in some communities affected by the landfill traffic, including Bangor, Brewer, Bradley, Eddington, Hampden, Orono and Old Town, say that routing the heavy trucks to the interstate would reduce traffic accidents, congestion and costs associated with maintaining the state roads.

“The ultimate goal is to get the traffic where it needs to go – on the highway,” Brewer Economic Development Director Andrew “Drew” Sachs said recently.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, now known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, created the interstate system, which includes Interstate 95, and Congress established an 80,000-pound weight limit on these roadways in 1982.

The West Old Town Landfill is located off I-95 between Exits 52 and 53, just south of the Alton town line. On Thursday, the state made final the purchase of the landfill from G-P, with a $26 million price tag, and signed an operating services agreement with Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems Inc., which has been selected to operate the facility.

Casella, which owns the Pine Tree Landfill in Hampden and the Maine Energy Recovery Co. incinerator in Biddeford, transports massive amounts of southern Maine waste to the Hampden facility yearly and plans to divert about two-thirds of this to the West Old Town Landfill. Most of the solid waste is moved in 100,000-pound trucks, according to a traffic assessment done by Eaton Traffic Engineers of Brunswick.

Don Meagher, manager of planning and development for Casella, said negotiations are under way on a 20-year contract to take landfill ash from Regional Waste Systems of Portland, which serves 21 southern Maine communities and produces 50,000 tons of ash annually. RWS’ 32-acre landfill in Scarborough is expected to reach capacity within the next nine months so the company must decide this month whether to expand the site or sign a contract to ship the ash to Old Town.

The Eaton Traffic Engineers assessment laid out only one proposed waste transportation route from Hampden to Old Town for the heavy trucks, along main roads in Hampden, Bangor, Eddington, Bradley and Old Town. Controversy arose with residents on this route in December but was dispelled at the end of January when the state released four other alternative routes that heavy trucks could use to get to the landfill.

Two of the routes lie on the east side of the Penobscot River, and three lie on the west side.

Three basic types of waste will be sent to the landfill in Old Town, Meagher said. He said the largest category would be construction and demolition debris. Unburnable trash, mainly glass and grit from incinerators, make up the second-largest category. Also, an estimated 25 percent will be received from Penobscot Energy Recovery Corp. ash.

Orrington’s PERC facility serves 160 communities.

“Those three categories probably account for 75 percent of the total waste,” Meagher said.

Transporting the waste in 80,000-pound trucks that could use the interstate would be more expensive, said Meagher. The trucks are subcontracted, and Meagher said these subcontractors gave him the figures he’s using.

“They came back and it worked out to an additional $7.50 per ton [to use the smaller trucks],” he said. “That’s $4 million a year.”

Using the smaller trucks also would mean twice as many vehicles would be on the road, Meagher said. He added that, at the projected rates, the West Old Town Landfill would produce 45 to 50 loads a day using the bigger trucks.

“During the busiest times of the day that will equal five trucks an hour,” he said.

In 1989, the Legislature passed a law requiring that all new commercial landfills be owned by the state. Jack Cashman, senior policy adviser to Gov. John Baldacci, said the law was passed for several reasons, but ensuring that out-of-state materials were not deposited in Maine is one of them. The G-P landfill will be the first state-owned landfill and will not accept out-of-state waste. Meagher said that waste, which enters the state and then is incinerated, is considered in-state waste.

Land for a future landfill for the state has been purchased in Township 2 Range 8, just west of Lincoln. This property has been licensed as a landfill but would require years of preparation.

There are two commercial landfills in the state, in Hampden and Norridgewock. Both were in operation before the 1989 law and therefore can still take out-of-state waste.

Because of various waivers, grandfather clauses and varying regulations, Canadian provinces and other Northeastern states have higher weight limits for trucks than Maine.

“Maine has a unique problem because it is surrounded by states and Canadian provinces with higher limits, so heavier trucks will always be passing through our state,” Maine’s 2nd District Rep. Michael Michaud said. “We need to get these trucks out of small towns and back onto the interstate – that’s a lot safer for residents, motorists and truckers alike.”

Because of the regulations, the heavy trucks are diverted onto smaller state and local roads, most of which have two lanes rather than four. To accommodate the big rigs, the state increased its weight limit to 100,000 pounds on state highways in 1994. To avoid breaking the law, northbound trucks exit the Maine Turnpike (which has a weight exemption) in Augusta at Exit 30. High truck traffic routes in Maine include Routes 1, 3, 9, 17 and U.S. Routes 2 and 202.

States such as Massachusetts, which allowed heavier trucks before the start of the interstate highway system in 1956, grandfathered their laws.

The interstate could handle the 100,000-pound trucks, said Bruce Ibarguen, traffic engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

“The arguments seem almost absurd from many standpoints,” he said. “Could the other system handle it like the state system does? It probably could.”

Interstate roads and Maine highways both have depth of pavement and the depth of sub-base rules that are similar. Interstates also have to abide by additional rules for items such as width, grades and curves.

Maine has secured a weight restriction exemption for the Maine Turnpike, which is also designated as Interstate 495, and part of I-95, which allows trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to use the road. Tim Bolton, transportation planning specialist for the DOT, said this is because no federal funds were used to build the roadway. Until recently it was classified as a state highway.

“When you come over the bridge [from New Hampshire] that’s Interstate 95 until you hit the turnpike,” said Bolton. “The turnpike predated the interstate system and so we got that area exempted. When we got the Maine Turnpike exempted we got that stretch exempted too.”

Larger trucks that exceed the federal weight limit are allowed on a 115-mile stretch of road that starts at the New Hampshire-Massachusetts state line and runs 17 miles through the Granite State to the Maine state line and extends north 100 miles to Augusta.

“We’re attempting to do the same thing for the rest of the interstate so we don’t have these heavy trucks going into downtown Augusta, Portland and Bangor,” Bolton said.

Legislation

Because thousands of trucks a month exceeding the federal weight limit travel through the state en route to points in Canada and the south, several lawmakers have introduced legislation to address this disparity. Former Gov. Angus King worked on the issue, and Gov. Baldacci, when he served as a U.S. congressman, introduced legislation to increase the weight limits.

Rep. Tom Allen and Rep. Michael Michaud, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, co-sponsored HR 1124, the Commercial Truck Highway Safety Demonstration Program Act.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins co-sponsored a comparable bill in the Senate, the Commercial Truck Safety Pilot Program Act.

Both bills are in committee and direct the secretary of transportation to establish a three-year commercial truck safety pilot program in Maine during which the truck weight limit on all Maine interstate highways would be set at 100,000 pounds.

Throughout the three-year program, the secretary would study the impact of the uniform weight limit on safety. If the secretary determined that motorists were safer as a result of the uniform weight limit, the limit would be set permanently at 100,000 pounds.

“The greatest issue is safety,” said Collins. “A uniform truck weight limit would keep trucks on the interstate where they belong, rather than on roads and highways that pass through Maine’s cities, towns and neighborhoods. Maine’s citizens and motorists are needlessly at risk because too many heavy trucks are forced off the interstate and onto local roads.”

During 2002, Sens. Snowe and Collins co-sponsored a provision that allows trucks that exceed the 80,000-pound weight limit to use the interstate when transporting jet fuel to the Air National Guard base in Bangor during periods of national emergency.

A recently released state Department of Transportation study estimated that increasing the weight limit would save the state $1 million to $1.65 million in pavement rehabilitation and around $300,000 each year in bridge maintenance and rehabilitation costs, the senator said. From a safety standpoint, the study predicted that crashes involving heavy trucks would decrease by more than three crashes per year.

“But a uniform truck weight limit of 100,000 pounds on Maine’s interstate highways would also be beneficial for the trucking industry and the state,” Collins said. “If truck drivers were allowed to stay on interstate highways, it would reduce the miles and travel times necessary to transport freight through Maine, resulting in economic and environmental benefits.”

Collins said she and Snowe would pursue approval of this pilot program in the Senate this year.

“The limits also put Maine at a competitive disadvantage,” Michaud said. “We can’t get our paper, potatoes and finished products out as efficiently as other places, so our businesses suffer. Lifting these limits would significantly aid Maine’s economic development.”

Maine is not alone in its efforts to raise weight limits. The Connecticut Farm Bureau is behind a bill to allow milk trucks to carry 100,000 pounds on its interstate system. The Farm Bureau claims Connecticut is at an economic disadvantage because six other Northeastern states allow the heavier trucks.

Meagher said Casella would prefer to use the interstate to transport the waste from points in southern Maine to Old Town but until federal regulations are changed, his hands are tied.