Rep. Rick Larsen, WA-02, issued the following statement regarding a provision in the transportation authorization bill to allow an increase in maximum truck weights. The bill is being marked up today by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, of which Larsen is a member.
“The nature of interstate commerce requires that we have a national policy on truck weights.
“The challenge to increasing truck weights is the additional maintenance and preservation of pavement and bridges that will be necessary beyond the underfunded efforts we live with today. We have today a transportation bill that does not meet needs for new construction or maintenance and preservation. It does not now make sense to adopt a policy that will increase maintenance and preservation costs. “There are also significant concerns that allowing larger trucks would increase safety risks on our highways. The safety implications must be fully understood before we move forward with a decision.
“I will support the amendment from Rep. Jerry Costello that requires the Department of Transportation to definitively study the impacts of increasing truck weights so we have more current information instead of using decade-old information to make a decision.”
