County engineers concerned about increasing weight limits

LIMA —A proposal to increase the allowable truck weight limit from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds is meeting with resistance from local county engineers and the state engineers association.

The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a bill released last week by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, allows states to raise the weight limits for single-trailer trucks with six axles to 97,000 pounds and more than 100,000 pounds for double- and triple-trailer trucks.

“The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act will be the most significant reform of transportation programs in decades,” U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla. and chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “This bill will cut red tape, reduce the federal bureaucracy, move major infrastructure projects forward, attract more private sector participation and give states the flexibility they need to address their most critical transportation needs.”

Local county engineer officials and folks with the County Engineers Association of Ohio, however, disagree.

“From a county engineer's perspective, the increase in load limits would be detrimental to our local infrastructure,” said Brion Rhodes, chief deputy/bridge engineer for the Allen County Engineer's Office. “The 8.5 additional tons will accelerate the deterioration of our roads and bridges because they are not designed for that. They were not designed for that heavy of traffic loads.”

Rhodes said Allen County already has 13 bridges with load limits and three closed bridges. New, increased load limits would almost certainly lead to additional bridges that would need load limits, he said.

“We obviously don't have all the money in the world to replace those otherwise we would replace those or rehab where those load limits wouldn't be there,” Rhodes said. “Funding is always an issue. This new law would only compound that issue of not having adequate funding.”

Further complicating the matter, the Allen County Engineer's Office has spent more than $200,000 in the past three years for consultants to help load-rate a portion of the county's bridges, with other work being done in-house, Rhodes said. All that work and all that money would be for nothing if the proposal gains congressional and presidential approval because all the work would have to be completely redone, he said.

“Our funds are not sufficient to fix all our deficiencies,” Rhodes said. “With a lot of our revenue coming from gas taxes, when the price goes up, usage goes down. There's a pretty solid trend over the last few years of our revenue going down regardless of the cost fluctuations because fuel economy is going up as well.”

Fredrick B. Pausch, executive director of the County Engineers Association of Ohio, said the proposal could cost Ohio counties more than $40 million.

“All trips begin and end on local roads,” Pausch said. “Large trucks accelerate the deterioration of the nation's highways, roads and bridges. They will put further pressure on funding sources to maintain and repair these roadways. As income from the gas tax continues to decline, counties are already having difficulty keeping up with the needed repair.”