ALDOT: Bill would cripple Alabama roads and bridges, endanger public safety

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Department of Transportation has come out against proposed legislation allowing heavier truck axle weights for large trucks.

According to ALDOT, Senate Bill 110 and House Bill 204 would significantly worsen the condition of local and state roads and bridges, as well as hinder safety inspections of commercial vehicles.

“The primary thrust of the legislation is to allow significantly heavier axle weights to be hauled by large trucks – a move that is difficult to comprehend when the truckers already complain of sky-high liability insurance rates and serve as the primary target of advertising by personal injury law firms,” said ALDOT Deputy Director George Conner, one of the state’s foremost experts on bridges. “The math is simple: heavier truck axle weights are exceptionally dangerous and destroy roads and bridges; even heavier axle weights will be more dangerous and will destroy roads and bridges even more quickly.”

The bill would allow more weight per axle for log trucks on Alabama’s roadways, ALDOT said. The Alabama Forestry Association’s proposal would increase the legal limit for a single axle from 20,000 pounds to 22,000 pounds, while increasing the legal limit for two axles (tandem axles) from 34,000 pounds to 44,000 pounds, according to ALDOT.

Current law already allows a 10% scale tolerance, which allows an additional 10% of weight and would increase the legal weight for a single axle to 24,200 pounds and tandem axles to 48,400 pounds.

ALDOT said the bill would leave the legal total weight limit of a log truck at 80,000 pounds, or 88,000 pounds with the 10% scale tolerance.

However, an analysis by ALDOT and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency reveals it’s unlikely that the desired truck axle weight can be achieved without exceeding the current total weight limit. The joint review of data from more than 41,000 log trucks weighed by state weight crews in 2023 and 2024 shows only five instances where log trucks that were at or below the legal total weight had a tandem axle weight of 44,000 pounds or more.

“This is the latest in a long history of efforts by the Forestry Association to increase log truck axle weights and get more exemptions from state laws,” said Conner. “The issue of legal truck weight limits is complex, but our analysis clearly shows you can’t increase axle weight without increasing total weight. It’s unsafe and it will cause immeasurable damage to Alabama’s roads and bridges.

“Any discussion of axle weights and total weight should be guided by the simple fact that bridges are not unitary structures … they are made up of parts that are held together by bolts, welds and other methods. A significant portion of the damage done by trucks is the rolling, torquing action created by heavy axle loads impacting joints and individual components.”

‘Weight grab’ would require shifting more money to road, bridge repairs

If passed, the increased axle weights would reduce the pavement design life of state and U.S. highways by an additional 25% to 30%, with even worse impacts on county and city roads, ALDOT said. The increased axle weight limits would create an additional $150 million in maintenance needs for state and U.S. highways, a burden that would result in either higher deferred maintenance or reductions in projects to relieve congestion on crowded roadways.

“If allowed to become law, this ‘weight grab’ would be detrimental to the safety and integrity of Alabama’s roads and bridges,” said ALDOT chief engineer Ed Austin. “It would require ALDOT to look at its current four-year plan and cut planned projects for new construction in order to shift those funds to repairing damage from heavier axle weights.

“And if we can’t keep pace with the damage, we will see road conditions worsen. The impacts will be even more severe on county roads, which are more susceptible to damage from log trucks because they are not designed to the same standard as state and U.S. highways.”

To give some context, ALDOT said current Alabama law for state, U.S. and local roadways mirrors federal law for interstates at 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, 20,000 pounds single axle weight and 34,000 pounds tandem axle weight. Interstate highways are designed to the highest design standard of all roads.

The push for increased axle weights would also impact bridges, resulting in more bridges being posted to prevent trucks with the heavier axle weights from crossing and damaging the bridges. ALDOT said the number of posted, weight-restricted bridges statewide would increase by approximately 350.

“Increasing the axle weights has a tremendous impact on overall weight,” Conner said. “For bridges, axle loads matter more than total vehicle load. As a log truck moves across a bridge, the axles apply concentrated load to the various parts of a bridge … girders, support columns, the driving surface. If you increase axle weight, that extra load is bearing directly down on every component of a bridge when it passes over that part of its structure.

“Not only will it increase the accumulated wear and tear on bridges, you’re risking a bridge collapse because of heavier weights.”

While some states do allow heavier axle weights, more than 30 states join Alabama in mirroring the federal weight limits for their state and local roads/bridges.

“We believe Alabama should remain consistent with Federal weight limits in order to keep Alabama’s roadways safer and to prevent an unprecedented new magnitude of ongoing damage from heavier axle weights,” Conner said.

New impacts on enforcing log truck weights

According to ALDOT, the bill includes impacts to enforcement with a new stipulation that would require a state trooper to leave a portable truck weighing location within 30 minutes and accompany the log truck driver to a permanent platform scale, which will have the effect of shutting down any further safety inspections for an extended period of time.

This “in-the-field appeal” would require the state trooper to void any citation issued if the permanent scales show the log truck is within legal weight limits, a kind of appeal unavailable to other drivers cited for violating rules of the road. Currently, only a judge can void a ticket issued in the state of Alabama.

The bill would alternatively allow a log truck driver who is cited for being overweight to drive to a permanent platform scale within 100 miles verify the accuracy of portable scales, ALDOT said. In this scenario, the state trooper would be required to void any overweight citation if the log truck driver could present an affidavit within 48 hours showing the truck was within legal limits.

The bill would also impose a limit of three log trucks to be stopped at portable scales at any one time, leaving other overweight or illegal trucks free to bypass scales and inspections, ALDOT said.