Stop the Trucks: Overweight Trucks Damage Infrastructure
The Associated Press (AP) released this story today which has immediate applications to Ojai given that Caltrans appears to endorse the concept that Route 150 from Casitas Springs through Ojai to Santa Paula and Route 33 from Cuyama through Ojai to the 101 in Ventura are acceptable truck routes for upwards of 600 - 800 gravel trucks per day. (That's one truck every 3 -5 minutes through Ojai 24/7.)
Some of the highlights are below along with a link to the full, original story:
Overweight Trucks Damage Infrastructure
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
More than a half-million overweight trucks are allowed onto the nation's roads and bridges -- an increasingly routine practice that some officials say is putting dangerous wear and tear on an already groaning infrastructure...
According to a government study, one 40-ton truck does as much damage to the road as 9,600 cars...
Around the country, many transportation officials... express concern that not enough is being spent to repair the damage done by extra-heavy trucks.
As for why they issue overweight-load permits, many state officials said they have no choice -- they are simply carrying out the laws as passed by the legislature....
In the vast majority of cases, a single truck can safely pass over a sound bridge, even if the rig is way over the posted weight limit. But the cumulative effect of stress on the steel and concrete can eventually prove deadly.
Engineers liken the effect of heavy trucks on a bridge to bending a paper clip: It can bend again and again without breaking, but eventually it will snap....
The danger is magnified by a recent federal finding that 18 percent of the nation's bridges either do not have weight limits posted or incorrectly calculated the weight limits that are posted. Also, a federal study last year classified 26 percent of the nation's bridges as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete...
''It's one of the most befuddling policies we deal with, that we spend millions of dollars to build roads ... and the state comes along and for a pittance gives out a permit to allow trucks to destroy those roads in a matter of months or years,'' said one official...
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For the full story go to: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Overweight-Trucks.html
The "Stop the Trucks" phone number is 805-640-2524
http://www.ojaipost.com/stopthetrucks.shtml
To Report violations please go to:
http://www.ojaipost.com/2007/06/catch_a_truck_violation_report.shtml
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