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The Association of County Commissions of Alabama released a podcast last week warning of Senate Bill 110, a bill seeking to raise axle weight limits for certain trucks.
The ACCA warns in the podcast that passage of the bill could “ultimately undo the progress made under the 2019 Rebuild Alabama Act.”
“If enacted, Senate Bill 110 would expedite the deterioration of pavement on county- and state-maintained roads, increase the number of bridges statewide that are posted with weight restrictions and, in turn, threaten the safety of the driving public,” the ACCA said in a release promoting the podcast.
SB110, sponsored by Sen. Jack Williams, R-Mobile, has already been approved by the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee and is now in position to be considered on the Senate floor as early as Tuesday.
“Much of the discussion in the Alabama Statehouse on this bill—I’ll say it this way—is ‘Aw, shucks. this isn’t a big deal. As long as you’re not over gross weight, what does it matter what the axle weight is?'” said Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the ACCA.
Ed Austin, chief engineer of the Alabama Department of Transportation, said that an increased axle weight still has an impact on roads and bridges regardless of whether the gross weight of the vehicle changes.
“The loads are transferred from those axels directly into those roads and bridges that they’re utilizing to haul this timber with, so the axle weights increasing is actually more detrimental than just the overall weight in general,” Austin said.
There will be more than 350 bridges at the state and county level that Austin said would become posted for weight restriction is SB110 passes.
“So the very legislation that they’re asking to have passed would preclude them from using 350 bridges at the local level that would be significant for the usage of them to haul timber,” Austin said.
Brasfield also said the bill would have a 30 percent reduction in counties’ ability to resurface roads, estimated at about $55 million a year in costs. Rebuild Alabama generated $79 million for counties to resurface roads last year.
