REROUTING TRUCKS

There are two ways to get the logging trucks and other huge tractor-trailers off the side roads and streets of Bangor and Old Town and Unity and back on Routes I-95 and I-395 where they belong.

One way is for Maine state officials and Maine’s delegation to Congress to go on as they have for 20 years or more to try to get the 80,000-pound load limit on the interstates from Augusta north lifted to 100,000 pounds, so that the trucks won’t be forced onto side streets and roads. But their efforts are up against a powerful opposition lobby comprising some other states that want to keep the load limit in as many places as possible and good-hearted but misguided citizens who have been persuaded that a change would boost costs and cause more traffic accidents.

Another solution is the way New Hampshire did it. Truckers and other drivers faced the same problem with Routes I-93 and I-89 and efforts to raise the weight limit had been blocked repeatedly by the lobby and by congressional opponents. In 2004, with an overwhelming congressional defeat, the prospects looked bleaker than ever. But New Hampshire’s Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican, was in a powerful position as co-chairman of the Senate Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Committee. He was able, without public notice, to slip a rider into an omnibus appropriations bill permitting trucks up to 99,000 pounds to travel on Interstate 93 and Interstate 89 in New Hampshire. The bill became law, and New Hampshire got its waiver. But not Maine.

A third possibility cropped up on April 3 at a forum in Bangor arranged by The New England Council, an influential body that bills itself as “New England’s Voice on Capitol Hill for more than 80 years.” U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud and Commissioner David Cole of the Maine Department of Transportation both raised the issue.

Oddly enough, it appeared that The New England Council had never been approached on the matter and was not aware that the heavy rigs were barred from this part of the highway network that is so vital for New England’s economic development. The council’s president and CEO Jim Brett said afterward that the way to proceed would be for Maine authorities to present the case to the council’s transportation committee for its consideration on bringing it before the full council.

So the way is open for some new help on a regional matter. State officials can present to the council the findings of a study by Wilbur Smith Associates, an international infrastructure consulting firm with an office in Portland, showing that the rule change would decrease the rate of fatal crashes and save between $1.7 and $2.3 million a year in pavement and bridge repairs on the “diversionary routes,” the largely two-lane undivided highways heavy trucks are now forced to travel. A good suggestion would be a three-year test period to see whether raising the load limit on the Interstate would actually save money and lives.