Truck Weight Limits

Book excerpt: To help assess proposals for further changes in federal truck weight limits, Congress requested this study through Section 158 of the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987. To conduct the study, the National Research Council convened a special Transportation Research Board committee with experts in pavements, bridges, highway safety, freight transportation economics, motor vehicle design, highway administration, motor carrier operations, and enforcement of motor vehicle regulations. The study focused on four issues identified in the study request that involve potential changes to federal weight limits for Interstate highways: (1) Elimination of existing grandfather provisions; (2) Alternative methods for determining gross vehicle weight and axle loadings; (3) Adequacy of the current federal bridge formula; and (4) Treatment of specialized hauling vehicles--garbage trucks, dump trucks, and other trucks with short wheel bases that have difficulty complying with the current federal bridge formula. For each of these issues, the study committee estimated the nationwide effects of changes in federal limits proposed by the trucking industry, highway agencies, and other groups. Projections of heavy-truck miles by type of truck, region of the country, highway functional class, and operating weight were developed for a base case and alternative truck weight regulatory scenarios. These projections were then used to estimate impacts on truck costs, pavements, bridges, and safety.