Champlain bans overweight trucks

Heavy vehicles that require special load permits will be prohibited from crossing the Champlain Bridge starting on Oct. 10 to preserve the bridge’s structural integrity, the federal corporation that manages it has announced. Repeated trips of overweight vehicles “put stress on the structure beyond the load limits that it was designed to bear,” Glen Carlin, CEO of the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated, said in a statement on Friday. The vehicles that will be prohibited on the bridge are those with Class 5 and Class 6 special travel permits. The former applies to trucks weighing 66 to 79 tonnes and the latter applies to trucks weighing over 80 tonnes. There are more than 5.3 million truck trips across the Champlain Bridge each year, and only 20 of those are by Class 6 vehicles, bridge corporation spokesperson Julie Paquet said. Operators of those extra heavy vehicles acquire the permit from the bridge corporation, and it’s good for one passage. Class 5 vehicles require an annual permit from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec. The SAAQ issued 9,000 such permits for the entire province this year, Paquet said.