Legislative duel starting over truck size & weight
Two national legislative bills addressing the controversial issue of commercial truck size and weight are headed for a showdown in the U.S. Congress over the next several weeks.
The first is House bill H.R. 1618, titled the “Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act” (SHIPA), – which was introduced March 19 by Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) with Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) as the lead minority cosponsor, along with 47 other original cosponsors.
It seeks to freeze current truck size and weight limits for all states to those rules on the books as of June 1, 2008 – limiting truck trailer size to 53-ft long and weight limits to 80,000 lbs., unless a state allowed longer and heavier trucks to operate on its roads as of that date. Also under the McGovern bill, any group of two or more consecutive axles would stay consistent with the weights enacted under the Federal Aid Highway Amendments of 1974.
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