Catastrophe on the Roads

Catastrophe on the roads

The bill to amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to vehicle weight limitations applicable to the Interstate System, and for other purposes should not be passed by Congress due to the cost of damages to roads and bridges that would result in these heavier trucks, such as damages to our El Paso roads and bridges, increase amount of accidents caused by these semi-trucks and the negative impact that it will have for our local trucking companies.

Peoples first thought when the word semi-truck comes to mind is big and heavy. This bill will increase the already heavy weight of the loads, to become even heavier. The bill has catastrophe written all over it. This bill will affect us as El Paso residents in several different ways. It won’t just affect truck drivers; it’s going to affect those who own vehicles, citizens who pay taxes or even an innocent by standards traveling along interstate ten.

If the bill to increase the weight and length on commercial trucks is passed the El Paso community will have to think of the damages the extra weight added on to the loads will have on the El Paso roads and bridges. Going from eighty thousand to one hundred twenty six thousand pounds is a significant amount of weight added on to a single truck load, with this significant amount of weight added on to our roads with time this extra weight will cause a speed up in normal wear and tear on our roads. The amount of money that would be spent on repairing the damages of the roads would be a significant amount of money meaning tax payers’ dollars.

Interstate 10 is the major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. In the U.S. state of Texas, it runs east from El Paso, near the border with New Mexico, through San Antonio and Houston to the border with Louisiana in Orange, Texas. At just under 879 miles (1,415 km), the stretch of Interstate 10 crossing Texas, maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, is the longest...