Editorial: Eye on overweight trucks

Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007 | 1:26 a.m.

As is common throughout the country, Nevada law allows the state Transportation Department to issue permits for trucks that regularly exceed standard weight limits for roads, highways and bridges.

The theory is that fees paid for the permits will cover the cost of any infrastructure damage caused by the extra weight, and that some trucks - including those used for construction, logging, the military and agriculture - are of necessity overweight most of the time and should be permitted.

But this theory is now being called into question, given recent disclosures about the aging, worn and even crumbling condition of many roads and bridges in every state of the country.

The Associated Press recently produced a special report on the states' practice of routinely allowing overweight trucks as long as their drivers apply for and receive a permit. The news service said that some experts are warning that this practice can weaken steel and concrete.

One grossly overweight truck can almost always safely pass over a sound bridge, but that does not prove there is no danger, the AP pointed out. Engineers were interviewed who cautioned about the cumulative effect of thousands of overweight trucks passing over roads and bridges.

This is where it gets dangerous. Someday a road or bridge is going to give way, just as a paper clip eventually snaps if a person bends it again and again, the engineers said.

Infrastructure inspectors interviewed by the AP say this cumulative effect, this gradual weakening of steel and concrete, may have contributed to the Minneapolis bridge collapse on Aug. 1 that killed 13 people and injured more than 100.

With federal reports listing one in every four of the country's bridges as deficient, and with the American Society of Civil Engineers listing the cost of fixing all highway infrastructure at $1.6 trillion, it is time for state transportation departments to reassess how they issue permits for overweight trucks.