Keep on truck'n

Byram - Some municipal officials may be forced to take an extra look in the rear-view mirror following a federal appeals court decision that has the potential to put more large trucks on small state and county highways in New Jersey. The Department of Transportation is appealing the court’s ruling, which threw out a seven-year ban and reopened 3,500 miles of major highway in New Jersey to interstate double-trailer trucks and many tractor-trailers. In the meantime, DOT has issued a set of emergency regulations that will continue to ban trucks from county and municipal roads unless they have local deliveries. Interstate trucks, however, will not be prohibited from returning to two-lane, undivided highways including Route 206, according to acting Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri. Last week’s decision upheld a previous court ruling that said the state’s heavy-truck ban violated interstate commerce protections. A federal judge in Newark had granted a stay in that March 2004 ruling, while the state appealed. No such stay was granted by the circuit court last week. So, for the moment, the ban is over. Some local officials including Sparta Township planner David Troast, who said the court’s ruling shouldn’t impact area roadways, weren’t overly concerned. “I don’t feel it will affect Sussex County,” said Tom Drabic, Sussex County transportation planner. “There are no good through routes in the county that connect with the interstates.” Drabic said routes 15, 23 and 206 could pose problems, but that until large companies or distribution centers take up shop locally, heavy truck traffic in Sussex County will be limited to stops at Loews, Wal-Mart, Shop-Rite, and Home Depot. “There are no major attractors,” said Drabic. “Because of typography, lights and geometry of the road, there’s really no reason (for large trucks) to travel through some of these roads.” Gov. Jon Corzine has asked the state attorney general to appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, while directing his administration to form a task force to consider other options to regulate interstate trucks, balancing commerce, safety and law enforcement. The New Jersey State League of Municipalities, which has thrown its support behind the governor, hopes the task force will consider clarifying how local deliveries are defined. Even before the court’s ruling, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, an alliance of public interest, transit advocacy, planning and environmental organizations, predicted that Sussex County truck traffic would double, growing 107 percent by 2020, when one in four vehicles traveling on local roadways would be a heavy truck. Byram Mayor Eskil “Skip” Danielson was among those disappointed by the court’s ruling. “Anything that adds to the existing traffic problem is not good,” he said. “The basic premise is probably sound constitutionally, but it’s going to aggravate our traffic situation.” The original ban prohibited double trailers and 102-inch-wide trucks from secondary and rural roads. Large trucks were restricted to major highways -- the interstates, the New Jersey Turnpike and the Atlantic City Expressway -- unless they had an origin or a destination in New Jersey. Route 206 passes through the center of Byram, where the township council has butted heads with the mayor over state plans to widen the roadway from two to five lanes. Danielson continues to be a staunch proponent behind the planned expansion of Route 206, despite the council’s wishes for a narrower, boulevard-style approach. . “We already have a traffic problem,” said the mayor. “The court’s ruling shows the need to widen the highway in a more timely manner.” Scott Olson, a member of the township environmental commission who has campaigned aggressively against the planned widening, said more interstate trucks are not good for air pollution and traffic safety in Byram, but the court’s decision shouldn’t change the council’s plans. “This ruling temporarily limits the state’s abilities to keep big rigs off our local roads, but it doesn’t mean we have to willingly roll out a ‘Welcome Mat’ for them by turning Route 206 into an interstate highway,” he said. “This is all the more reason to rethink DOT’s current plan for a ‘big-rig friendly’ widening of Route 206 through the heart of our Village Center. If anything, it should point out the false thinking of those who are claiming the DOT plan for improvements will make this a safer highway.” In 1997 alone, there were 20,000 accidents involving trucks. And truck accident rates in general are about twice as high on state and county highways as on interstates. The original ban was challenged by the American Trucking Association, of Alexandria, Va., and U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc., a trucking company based in Chattanooga, Tenn., which claimed it discriminated against out-of-state truckers. Truckers said the ban cost them millions in extra tolls and fuel.