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What
are the federal truck weight regulations that affect Maine?
Federal laws require that vehicles may not exceed 80,000 pounds
on federal interstate roads. States may set their own rules, and
Maine has a 100,000 pound limit on its roads.
Are
the federal rules the reason why we have a problem with so many
trucks traveling on state and local roads?
Yes, the mismatch between state and federal weight limits
means that trucks must divert off the Interstate to travel through
much of Maine.
What
would the effects be of a rule change on weight limits for Maine's
Interstate?
Congressman Michaud strongly believes
that allowing trucks of up to 100,000 pounds on the Interstate
in Maine would promote safety for the citizens of Maine by ensuring
that trucks are no longer diverted off the major highways and
through small towns to conform to federal weight limit rules.
A change in rules would keep trucks in the safest possible areas,
and further away from communities and smaller roads. It would
also reduce the net highway maintenance costs in Maine because
the Interstate System highways, unlike the secondary roads of
Maine, are built to accommodate heavy vehicles and are, therefore,
more durable. This would also ensure that Maine can remain competitive
in the transportation and manufacturing sectors, and that our
neighbors do not pass us by in development.
In 2002,
the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) contracted with
Wilbur Smith Associates to examine the impact that an exemption
from federal weight rules on Maine's Interstate System would have
on safety, pavement and bridges. The study drew on numerous data
sources to model how changes in weight policy would affect travel
patterns of 5-axle and 6-axle trucks. The safety analysis indicates
that if the weight limit on the Interstate were changed to 100,000
pounds, the net impact to Maine would be a decrease of 3.2 crashes
annually. The economic impact in Maine is estimated to be an annual
cost savings of between $1.7 and $2.3 million for less pavement
repair and fewer losses from crashes. In other words, changing
the weight limits would improve safety and decrease costs for
the state of Maine.
Have
there ever been any changes to the law?
In 1998, as part of the Transportation Equity Act for
the 21st Century (abbreviated TEA-21, this was the six-year federal
law that authorized spending and rules for surface transportation),
the Congressional delegation was able to get the state weight
limits to apply to the Maine Turnpike by arguing that federal
money did not maintain the road. Since 1998, the delegation has
been attempting the much harder task of trying to secure an exemption
for the remainder of the road, which is federally maintained,
and therefore subject to the federal weight limit.
What
efforts have been undertaken to try to fix the problem?
In Congress, Congressman Mike
Michaud introduced HR 1012 along with Congressman Tom Allen. This
legislation would give Maine a waiver from federal limits. Congressman
Michaud has worked to educate other members of the House Committee
on Transportation-of which he is a member-about this issue. However,
this remains an uphill struggle. Unfortunately, many in Congress
remain opposed to any changes in truck weight standards anywhere
in the United States.
Would
an amendment to another bill work?
The opposition to truck weight
changes is very strong. This was vividly demonstrated during consideration
of the reauthorization bill for TEA-21 in 2004. During debate
on the House floor, Congressman Jeb Bradley, a Republican from
New Hampshire, introduced an amendment for New Hampshire that
is very similar to the exemption that we want for Maine. The House
rejected the amendment by an overwhelming vote of 334-90-and both
the committee and subcommittee leadership, from both parties,
voted "no." This episode demonstrated that this is not
a partisan issue, not a political issue - but rather an issue
where there is a great deal of built-up resistance to change,
and where genuine education and sustained effort will be needed
to change minds.
What
new tactics are being tried now?
Congressman Michaud recently joined
with Congressman Henry Brown of South Carolina-which also has
a weight limit problem-to introduce a new initiative to give an
exemption from federal rules for both Maine and South Carolina.
This initiative is based on Congressman Michaud's bill, HR 1012.
This approach has the benefit of being a bipartisan initiative
in different regions, and could help demonstrate that changes
like the one Maine is seeking create safety and cost advantages.
Congressman Michaud is also exploring ways to use NAFTA rules
to bring about weight limit changes. He is committed to trying
as many approaches as possible until this is resolved.
Who
is against this? Where is the opposition?
The opposition is both broad and narrow. It's broad in the sense
that, as the vote on the Bradley amendment shows, there is widespread
opposition to any change in truck weight regulations. So we have
a challenge in front of us to persuade a lot of members of congress
that this change will help safety.
But the opposition
is also narrow in the sense that there are specific members who
have a lot of influence on the relevant committees who are against
this, and these members are both republicans and democrats, and
are in both the house and senate.
In fact,
there was a "big four" agreement among the chairmen
and the ranking members of both the full T&I committee and
the highway subcommittee that no changes in truck weight regulations
would be made in SAFETEALU.
Didn't
New Hampshire recently gain a similar exemption?
Yes. New Hampshire has faced a
similar problem, and following attempts to pass amendments and
legislation to fix it – all of which failed – Senate
Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd
Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, inserted a provision at the
back of last year's omnibus appropriations act that would allow
larger trucks of up to 99,000 pounds to travel on Interstate 89
and Interstate 93 in New Hampshire.
This was
an extremely unusual situation. Senator Gregg is a very powerful
member of the Senate Appropriations committee, and because of
that, he was able to get away with something that normally would
not be permitted. Normally, Members are not allowed to write new
policy on appropriations bills-and the committees of jurisdiction
would step in stop it for just about anyone else. However, given
Senator Gregg's tremendous influence, his provision was able to
stand up.
The fact
that New Hampshire was able to lift the weight limit is good for
the people of New Hampshire for the same reason it would be good
for the people of Maine. It is not a bad thing that this happened
for them, but it is unfair that Maine, which has the same problem,
has been left out, and it only adds to our argument that we need
the same exemption for Maine.
added: 12/02/05 |
