Dear Editor:

Georgia’s congressional delegation should oppose a renewed push at the federal level to allow bigger, more dangerous trucks on the state’s roads that would also tear up infrastructure due to the additional weight.

Georgians have been outspoken about the dangers and infrastructure pitfalls of allowing heavier trucks on our roads. At the beginning of the year, the Board of Commissioners in Tift County, the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) along with many safety advocates, strongly opposed H.B. 189 in the Georgia General Assembly, a bill that would have allowed a statewide increase for all commercial trucks on state and local roads.

A dramatically scaled back version was passed that allows primarily forest and agriculture products to operate at 88,000 pounds and limited operations outside of the Atlanta metropolitan area, with a two-year sunset. Our opposition to this increase stressed serious safety issues for motorists and the added damaged to our roads and bridges.

Now, we are seeing the same push at the federal level, with an even higher weight increase. Special interests have been proposing bigger tractor-trailer trucks in Congress for many years, but this year we have seen a very serious push, including a bill that would ultimately lead to a nationwide weight increase on any type of commercial truck on the nation’s interstate roads.

Marketed as a “pilot project,” H.R. 3372 would allow any state to increase truck weights up to 91,000 pounds on their interstates– a 12% increase in weight without any assistance to state and local governments that would have to foot the bill for additional bridge and infrastructure damage.

Many of us in Georgia worked so hard opposing these efforts at the State Capitol, so we are asking our members of Congress to oppose H.R. 3372. It has already passed out of one committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now there is talk of trying to include this language in federal government funding bills or the farm bill coming up for discussion in the fall. Neither of these is acceptable.

Local municipalities throughout the state already have difficulty maintaining public works budgets, and with inflationary pressures the costs of maintaining and replacing municipal infrastructure continues to grow. Then, there’s the obvious safety issues with heavier trucks. Adding more weight to tractor-trailers without additional braking capacity increases stopping distance, potentially turning a near-miss into a fatal accident.

Recently, the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (CABT), in conjunction with county officials with expertise in local infrastructure, undertook a comprehensive evaluation on the impact of heavier trucks on local bridges, those not on the National Highway System. This study fills in the gaps of an earlier federal assessment, which did not look at the impact of bigger trucks on local roads and bridges.

The study identified 2,443 local bridges throughout Georgia that would be unable to safely accommodate 91,000-pound trucks. Replacing those bridges would cost Georgia taxpayers more than $2.2 billion. I believe this is critical information policymakers need to know during any consideration of legislation that would increase truck size or weight.

As a county commissioner as well as the immediate past president of the ACCG, I am asking that our federal delegation take safety and infrastructure damage into consideration and oppose any attempts in Congress to increase the size of tractor-trailers, including H.R. 3372.

Melissa Hughes is serving her fourth term as a Tifton County Commissioner.