Bearing the weight
Whitfield, state officials: Proposed logging bill will wreck Georgia roadways, bridges, culverts
Walker County Commission Chairman Shannon Whitfield urges blocking proposed legislation that would pave the way for heavier logging trucks on Georgia’s roads.
Whitfield testified Feb. 23 before a Georgia Senate Transportation Committee hearing on Senate Bill 118, a proposal to allow vehicles hauling forest products to reach a total gross weight of up to 100,000 pounds on six axles. Current law allows forest products to be hauled on five axles up to 80,000 pounds with a variance of 5%.
“It costs us (Walker County) roughly $180,000 per centerline mile to resurface one mile of road, and with 674 miles (of county roads), if we’re able to pave 20 miles a year, that’s 33.7 years to pave every road in our county,” Whitfield said.
According to a recent state survey, 22% of city and county roads are in poor condition; in Walker County more than 40% of roads are in poor condition, he said.
“GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation) does a great job working with us to inspect our bridges every year, but one of the things that is most concerning to me about putting more weight on our roads is our water drainage culverts,” Whitfield said. “In Walker County, in 674 miles of roads, we have over 3,000 water drain culverts that run under our county roads.”
Whitfield cited concerns about the financial burden on taxpayers and the challenge to public works crews to keep pace with the increased wear and tear on roads and culverts that
the extra weight would cause.
S.B. 118 was the only legislative bill discussed in a recent meeting of the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission, which represents 15 counties and 49 municipalities. The group unanimously passed a resolution opposing S.B. 118, he said.
Driving safety
Whitfield joined several other speakers opposing the proposed legislation, including Maj. Jeremey Vickery, commanding officer of the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s Motor Carrier Compliance Division.
“It is proven the heavier the truck, the greater the stopping distance and stopping time,” Vickery said. A fullyloaded, 80,000-pound truck traveling at 65 mph in ideal conditions needs almost the length of two football fields to stop.
Logging truck drivers are not subject to the hours-ofservice rules other commercial truck drivers must obey to prevent fatigue while driving, meaning they can operate 24 hours per day, seven days a week if they operate solely within Georgia, he said. Fatigue increases reaction time.
Georgia’s forestry vehicles average 5.2 violations per inspection, compared to 2.4 violations per inspection with other common freight carriers, he explained.
“Log trucks demonstrate very high vehicle out-of-service rates during safety inspections by our officers,” Vickery said. Out-of-service rates during safety inspections exceed that of common freight carriers.
“An out-of-service condition is a safety deficiency that is deemed so severe and unsafe when such conditions exist, it is immediate removal from the roadway to guarantee the safety of our public,” he said.
Maintenance costs
Meg Pirkle, GDOT’s chief engineer, cautioned, “What looks like a pro-economic development bill may not be.”
Forty percent of Georgia bridges are 50 years or older, their design lifespan, Pirkle said. If S.B. 118 becomes law, 1,464 Georgia bridges (16%) will be added to the load-restricted list, which already includes 1,232 local bridges.
Replacing bridges to accommodate the 100,000-pound limit will cost $1.5 billion, she explained. Trucks this size are prohibited on federal interstate highways.
With more bridges added to the load-restricted list, commute times will increase, not decrease, because of the alternate routes the heavier vehicles must take, she said.
According to a South Carolina study conducted by Clemson University, pavement damage costs increased 167% and bridge damage costs increased 164% with trucks carrying 100,000 pounds and having six axles, she said.
Kathleen Bowen, Association County Commissioners of Georgia associate legislative director, shared concerns that producers of other commodities who now receive the 5% variance will want similar treatment if this increase passes for the logging industry. She also provided a history of the times Georgia code has been changed to accommodate requests from cotton, solid waste and other commodities.
Tom Gehl, governmental affairs director of the Georgia Municipal Association, echoed the sentiments shared by other opponents.
Support
Joseph Conrad, assistant professor of forest operations at the University of Georgia, said he has studied Georgia’s timber transportation sector for four years and compared it to other states for the purposes of advising lumber businesses and policymakers to help them make Georgia’s timber transportation as safe and efficient as possible.
Other states allow greater gross vehicle weights on their roadways, and the lower weight limits put the state at a competitive disadvantage because of the increased transportation costs, he said.
Trucks with six axles hauling 100,000 pounds have approximately the same maneuverability and stopping distances as trucks with five axles hauling 80,000 pounds, Conrad said.
If all Georgia logging businesses go to the six-axle, 100,000-pound trucks, logging trucks would travel 36 million fewer miles on Georgia roads per year and fewer logging trucks would be needed, thereby increasing safety and reducing transportation costs, fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
Adding an extra axle on logging trucks will increase their braking capacity and make loads more stable, said Andres Vallegas, president and CEO of the Georgia Forestry Association.
Vallegas emphasized forestry’s role in Georgia’s economy, stating Georgia is the nation’s No. 1 forestry state, and 21% of all U.S. forest products are exported from Georgia.
Sen. Chuck Payne, R-Dalton, and Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, are sponsoring the bill with 11 other state senators.