Truck weight restrictions may apply to all highways

Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) reintroduced legislation that would apply truck size and weight limits now applied to the Interstate network to all of the National Highway System.

The bill is similar to a version introduced in 2003. The Senate included some of the caps in its long-term reauthorization of surface transportation programs, but Congress failed to enact that legislation in the 108th Congress.

If enacted, the act would cap truck trailer length at 53 ft on the National Highway System and extend the 80,000-lb gross weight limit to the entire highway network. State caps exceeding those limitations would be grandfathered, allowing them to stay on the highway systems.

The American Trucking Association estimates the new standards would apply to more than 100,000 miles of highway. A coalition of groups supporting the bill believes extending that freeze to the NHS would save taxpayers more than $326 billion in infrastructure costs across 20 years.