RE-THINKING TRUCK ROUTES

The death of a pedestrian struck by a gasoline tanker in downtown Bangor this week refocused attention on efforts to raise the weight limits on Maine’s interstate highways. While this remains a priority for the state’s congressional delegation, the difficulty of securing a legislative remedy means Bangor must do more to encourage trucks to avoid the core of the city.

Trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds are prohibited from traveling on Maine’s interstate highways, including I-95 and I-395. They are not barred from state roads, including those that crisscross Bangor.

Currently, Route 2 is the designated truck route through the city. This takes trucks on Hammond and State streets, through the heart of downtown Bangor. The trucks pass homes, courthouses, restaurants, offices, shops and pedestrians. This is not where the city wants large trucks for safety, economic and aesthetic reasons.

When the Maine Department of Transportation decided to close the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge this week for repairs, it asked the federal government to temporarily allow trucks over 80,000 pounds to use the Veterans Remembrance Bridge, which is part of I-395. Despite, what it called a “compelling case,” the Federal Highway Administration denied the request saying it didn’t have authority to grant it. DOT then designated a detour route that directs trucks to the outskirts of Bangor, which is better than the city’s current truck route.

City Engineer Jim Ring has already asked the DOT about designating the detour route as the official truck route. This is appropriate, as is Mr. Ring’s focus on completing the route on the city’s east side. Input from trucking companies should help guide this work.

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While the city is responding to the local problem, Maine’s congressional delegation continues to seek ways to raise the weight limit, using the accident to again ask the highway administration to raise the limit. Fifteen states have waivers to allow 100,000-pound trucks on some of their interstate highways, but lawmakers are reluctant to allow more due to concerns about safety and that truckers will then begin pushing for even higher weight limits.

A National Academy of Sciences panel criticized the current system of standards as “the outcome of a series of historical accidents.” It went on to say: “The regulations are poorly suited to the demands of international commerce; their effectiveness is being eroded by ever-expanding numbers and types of special exemptions, generally granted without evaluation of consequences; and freight traffic is bypassing Interstate highways, the safest and most efficient roads, to use secondary roads where limits are less restrictive, but the costs generated by that traffic are higher.”

It suggested that truck weights could safely be raised but that user fees be assessed to cover the increased cost of road and bridge maintenance. The panel also called for more public and private-sector cooperation and innovation to improve highway efficiency. This idea could be expanded to encourage the trucking industry, the rail industry, which is a larger funder of groups opposing raising truck weight limits based on safety concerns, and transportation officials to seek a compromise. Such a deal could, for instance, allow 100,000-pound trucks on interstates in all states that want the increase while barring further increases for a set number of years.

Raising the interstate limit to 100,000 pounds is reasonable but politically difficult. In the meantime, Bangor is wise to look for ways to minimize heavy truck traffic through the heart of downtown.