Transportation, Housing And Urban Development, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010--Resumed

Floor Speech

TRANSPORTATION, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--Resumed -- (Senate - September 17, 2009)

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise to speak in support of provisions I authored in the fiscal year 2010 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill that would increase safety, save energy, and decrease emissions by creating a 1-year pilot project to allow trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to travel on Maine's interstates. This provision also requires an analysis by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the State of Maine to study the effects of the increase on safety, road and bridge durability, energy use, and commerce. The U.S. Department of Transportation will report its findings to Congress. This Maine pilot project does not have any impact on other States' weight laws and regulations.

By way of background, let me explain why this pilot project is needed. Under current law, trucks weighing 100,000 pounds are allowed to travel on the portion of Interstate 95 designated as the Maine Turnpike, which runs from Maine's border with New Hampshire to Augusta, our capital city. At Augusta, the turnpike designation ends, but I-95 proceeds another 200 miles north to Houlton. At Augusta, however, heavy trucks must exit the modern four-lane, limited-access highway and are forced onto smaller, two-lane secondary roads that pass through cities, towns, and villages. The same problem occurs for Maine's other interstates like 295 out of Portland and 395 in the Bangor-Brewer area.

Trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds are already permitted on interstate highways in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York as well as the Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec. The weight limit disparity on various segments of Maine's Interstate Highway System is a significant impediment to commerce, increases wear-and-tear on our secondary roads, and, most important, puts our people needlessly at risk.

Diverting trucks onto these secondary roads raises critical safety concerns. In fact, there have been several accidents, some of which have tragically resulted in death, which have occurred after these large trucks were diverted onto secondary roads and through smaller communities. For example, in May 2007, a 17-year-old high school student from Hampden, ME, lost her life when her car was struck by a heavy truck on route 9. The truck driver could not see the car turning onto that two-lane road as he rounded a corner. Interstate 95 runs

less than three-quarters of a mile away, but Federal law prevented the truck from using that modern, divided highway, a highway that was designed to provide ample views of the road ahead.

A year earlier, Lena Gray, an 80-year-old resident of Bangor, was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer as she was crossing a downtown street. Again, that accident would not have occurred had that truck been allowed to use I-95, which runs directly through Bangor.

In June 2004, Wilbur Smiths Associates, a nationally recognized transportation consulting firm, completed a study to examine the impact a federal weight exemption on non-exempt portions of Maine's Interstate Highway System would have on safety, pavement, and bridges. The study found that extending the current truck weight exemption on the Maine Turnpike to all interstate highways in Maine would result in a decrease of 3.2 fatal crashes per year. The study also found that the fatal accident rate on the secondary roads was 10 times higher than on the turnpike, and the injury accident rate was seven times higher.

While improving safety is the key objective, a uniform truck weight limit of 100,000 pounds on Maine's interstate highways also would reduce highway miles, as well as the travel time, necessary to transport freight through Maine, resulting in economic and environmental benefits. Moreover, Maine's extensive network of local roads would be better preserved without the wear and tear of heavy truck traffic.

Interstate 95 north of Augusta, ME, where trucks are currently limited at 80,000 pounds, was originally designed and built for military freight movements to Loring Air Force Base at weights much heavier than 100,000 pounds. Raising the truck weight limit would keep heavy trucks on the interstates, which are designed to carry more weight than the rural State roads.

The argument that 100,000 pound trucks would cause greater road deterioration is misguided. Current Maine law requires that vehicles carrying up to 100,000 pounds on State roads be six-axle combination vehicles. Current Federal law requires that vehicles carrying 80,000 pounds be five-axle. Contrary to erroneous assumptions, six-axle 100,000 pound vehicles are not longer, wider or taller than the five-axle 80,000 pound vehicles. The six-axle 100,000 pound vehicles, which include an addtional set of brakes, allow for greater weight distribution thereby not increasing road wear and tear. Further, stopping distances and safety are in no way diminished, and preliminary data from studies conducted by the Maine State Police support this statement. That is why Maine's Commissioner of Public Safety, the Maine State Troopers Association, and the Maine Association of Police all support this pilot project.

A higher weight limit in Maine will not only preserve our rapidly deteriorating roads, but will provide economic relief to an already struggling trucking industry. Trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds are permitted on interstate highways in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York as well as the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec. Maine truck drivers and the businesses they serve are at a competitive disadvantage.

Last year, I met with Kurt Babineau, a small business owner and second generation logger and trucker from Maine. Like so many of our truckers, Kurt has been struggling with the increasing costs of running his operation. All of the pulpwood his business produces is transported to Verso Paper in Jay, ME, a 165-mile roundtrip. This would be a considerably shorter trip if his trucks were permitted at 100,000 pounds to remain on Interstate 95. Instead, his trucks must travel a less direct route through cities and towns. Kurt estimated that permitting his trucks to travel on all of Interstate 95 would save him 118 gallons of fuel each week. At last year's diesel cost of approximately $4.50 a gallon, and including savings from his drivers spending less time on the trip, he could have saved more than $700 a week, and more than $33,000 and 5,600 gallons of fuel annually. These savings would not only be beneficial to Kurt's bottom line, but also to his employees, his customers, and to our nation as we look for ways to decrease the overall fuel consumption.

An increase of the Federal truck weight limit in Maine is widely supported by public officials throughout Maine, including the Governor, the Maine Association of Police, and the Maine Department of Public Safety, which includes the State Bureau of Highway Safety, the Maine State Police, and the Bureau of Emergency Communications. I have several letters of support from these officials and organizations, which I will submit for the record with my statement. The Maine Legislature also has expressed its support for the change having passed resolutions over the past several years calling on Congress to raise the Federal truck weight limit to 100,000 pounds in Maine. I urge my colleagues to support this important provision in the Fiscal Year 2010 THUD appropriations bill.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

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