State infrastructure can’t handle trucks

Crumbling roads and bridges were major factors driving the nation’s performance down to a lowly grade of D+.

When the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its annual Report Card on America’s Infrastructure earlier this year, crumbling roads and bridges were major factors driving the nation’s performance down to a lowly final grade of D+.

This ought to be enough to bring all parties in Washington, Hartford and the other 49 state capitals together behind real and sustainable solutions to what is a nationwide infrastructure crisis. The ASCE Report Card found that of Connecticut’s 21,512 miles of public roads, 57 percent are deemed to be in poor condition, costing motorists an average of $864 a year in damages from driving on roads in need of repair.

With the president calling for a trillion in infrastructure investment and the obvious needs we face, this may indeed be one issue where all sides can agree. We shall see.

In the meantime, however, as Congress works behind the scenes on a stopgap infrastructure funding bill, lobbyists for the beer industry and others are pressuring key senators and representatives to raise the maximum weight for big rig trucks running on Interstate highways from the current 80,000 pounds up to 91,000 pounds. This stands to save the industries doing the lobbying substantial amounts in their shipping costs.

But raising truck weights also vastly increases infrastructure damage, especially to bridges, while adding huge new taxpayer costs to cover an already daunting bridge repair and maintenance backlog.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), 91,000-pound trucks would add $1.1 billion in additional bridges costs because thousands of Interstate and National Highway System bridges just cannot handle the pounding they would take from the heavier trucks. Adding insult to injury is the fact that 80,000-pound trucks only pay for about 80 percent of their current highway and bridge damage costs, according to USDOT, while 91,000-pounds trucks would only cover about 55 percent of theirs.

This means that the average taxpayer already, in effect, subsidizes heavy truck operations. They pay extra to cover heavy truck damage today and would pay even more if trucks get heavier.

That Congress would even consider an idea like this is baffling, especially at a time when virtually everyone agrees our ongoing failure to keep up with routine road and bridge maintenance, let alone needed upgrades and expansion, slows our economy, stifles growth and opportunity, and saddles the average person with increased cost and aggravation.

Congress needs to get down to the serious work of taking responsible action to improve our roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure.