Virginians need to combat renewed legislative efforts in the nation’s capital to allow bigger trucks onto the nation’s highways. In the last Congress, lawmakers considered two bills that are likely to be reintroduced again.
The most concerning bills include HR3372, which would create a so-called “pilot project,” allowing any state to increase truck weights from the current 80,000 pound maximum to 91,000 pounds (for up to 10 years) on its interstates.
The second is HR2166, which would replace the current national uniform interstate gross vehicle weight limit of 80,000 pounds with whatever each individual state allows on its state roads for logging trucks. The new weight limits would vary by state and very few of the states would have the same limits. This would allow state-legal weight log trucks to operate on the interstate system. In Virginia, this would allow log trucks weighing up to 90,000 pounds, five tons more than the current heaviest trucks on the interstate.
As a supervisor in Albemarle County for the past 10 years, I have strongly opposed legislation in Congress aimed at allowing bigger tractor-trailers on roads for safety reasons, the impact on infrastructure and road congestion.
Truck safety is already trending in the wrong direction, and the last thing we need is to add even heavier trucks to the road. According to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, from 2013 to 2023, the year with the most recently available data, truck crash fatalities rose by more than 35% in Virginia.
The latest stats from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show that Virginia had 5,173 large-truck crashes in 2023, resulting in 2,137 injuries and 120 fatalities. During that same year, the Hampton Roads area (including Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Suffolk) experienced 521 crashes involving tractor-trailers, leaving 245 people injured and nine fatalities. (Chesapeake does not currently have data reported for that year.)
Another top concern is the impact on infrastructure. Heavier trucks are more destructive to roads and bridges. The Federal Highway Administration found of the 14,143 bridges in Virginia, 9,534 bridges already are in fair/poor condition — more than 67% of bridges statewide.
An analysis by the Northern Virginia-based Coalition Against Bigger Trucks found that 24 bridges in the Hampton Roads region would need replacement to safely accommodate heavier trucks. The replacement cost would be $95 million, a cost local government and their taxpayers simply cannot afford.
In terms of the impact on congestion, VDOT has expressed concerns that heavier vehicles on the interstate would further degrade the speed of the overall traffic stream on interstates, “particularly on steep grades” and “may be less capable than the 80,000-pound vehicles to accelerate at entrance ramps, degrading the flow of traffic within the vicinity of ramps.”
Opposition is widespread in the state. The Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and Foundation have been steadfast in opposing legislation over the years that would increase federal truck size or weight limits.
Lawmakers have already relitigated this dangerous move in the past three sessions of Congress, with a bipartisan vote against bigger truck legislation occurring in 2015 in both chambers, soundly defeating the measure.
It is my duty in Albemarle County to protect the health and safety of our residents, visitors and our taxpayer investment. I am asking that our congressional delegation put public safety and taxpayers first and oppose any attempts in Congress to increase the size of commercial trucks. I hope readers across the state will do the same.
Ann Mallek of Earlysville has served on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors since 2008. She is past president of the Virginia Association of Counties.
