Heavy truckers limited on New York bridges

NEW YORK — The New York Supreme Court has ruled against local heavy haulers challenging the city’s newly-imposed ban of trucks on two Bronx-Long Island bridges.

Lawyers representing the Construction Trucking Association and the Road Transport Association spent hours yesterday grilling a Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority (TBTA) engineer about the rationale behind the ban.

But this morning, the court ruled that TBTA acted legally when it imposed weight restrictions on trucks that use the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Triborough Bridge, which have reportedly cracked and rusted steel support beams.

The trucking groups, which represent haulers of fuel, cement, crushed stone, sand, and other construction materials, were hoping for an
injunction to allow trucks weighing up to 105,000 pounds to cross the bridges.

Until the Minneapolis bridge collapse on August 2, such trucks were allowed to cross both structures if they held the proper weight permits. In the wake of the bridge collapse, TBTA set a new limit of
80,000 pounds.

The trucking groups say the sector as has been “thrown into chaos as a result of the sudden ban and the confusion and inconsistencies that have surrounded the implementation of the new regulation.”

Truckers insist the ban is irrational because even more smaller trucks will now crowd the same roadways and bridges.

The two associations are likely to appeal the decision.