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Supervisors adopt resolution opposing heavier trucking loads

Officials say bill would be deterimental to safety, structure of county bridges, roads

The Hamilton County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution opposing Iowa Senate Study Bill 1045 and Senate File 184, which if approved could allow trucks carrying more than a hundred thousand pounds to use most roads and bridges across Iowa.

County Engineer Nicole Stinn said the Senate file is troubling considering the condition and weight limits on many of Iowa’s rural bridges.

“This bill essentially allows raw forestry products and shipping containers to be considered indivisible loads even though those loads could be broken down into smaller loads,” she said. “Currently we only permit indivisible loads — things that cannot be broken down any further.

Stinn said the major issue with the bill is that it allows the Department of Transportation to issue annual permits for the county system.

“These haulers could go anywhere they want to with up to 130,000 pound loads even though our bridges are only rated for 80,000 pounds and we would never know about it,” she said.

The DOT doesn’t have the information to analyze the weight limits of the county’s bridges, Stinn said. “Just because a bridge isn’t posted (for weight limit), doesn’t mean that it can carry infinite weight. So it may be able to carry 90,000 pounds when it’s not posted, but it may not be able to carry 130,000,” according to Stinn. “It really is a safety issue and a structural issue for us to keep our bridges intact.”

She said it was likely that should the bill pass, there could be a “landside effect” with other industries seeking permission to carry heavier loads as well.

“This bill opens the door for any industries to really carry heavier loads even though they could limit it,” she said.

Stinn said the bill has passed through the Transportation Committee and the Ways and Means Committee, making it “funnel-proof” and could be debated at any time during the session.

“It could be tomorrow or the very last day of the session,” she said.

Board Chairman Doug Bailey said that the supervisors have discussed the bill with House District 48 Rep. Rob Bacon, R-Slater and Sen. Jerry Behn, Senate District 24, R-Boone.

“The problem is it opens the door, if approved, to other industries,” Bailey said. “But it has a great potential to be destructive to our structures.”

“It very much takes away our local ability – for the people that know the structures — to be able to analyze them,” she said.

“One more shot at local control,” Bailey said.

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