Mayor opposes bigger, heavier trucks moving through Medina Public Square

MEDINA — Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell has enlisted the support of Medina County commissioners and Medina County Sheriff Terry Grice to oppose possible legislation in U.S. Congress that would bring bob trucks roaring through downtown Medina. Proposals to increase the maximum weight of up to 91,000 pounds and to lengthen double-trailer trucks were rejected by Congress in a bipartisan vote in 2015. Hanwell wants to prevent it from ever happening by contacting three Ohio federal legislators: Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Rocky River, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland. Hanwell said it's expected to come up again in the new Congress, most likely during debate on infrastructure funding. The mayor has belonged to a national organization, Coalition Against Bigger Trucks, since 2013. The CABT wants to fight against the possibility of larger commercial vehicles. "Heavier trucks cause more damage to roads," Hanwell said. "Heavier trucks take longer to stop and cause more damage when involved in crashes. Trucks using our square have difficulty with turning radius of existing corners going up over curbs or handicap accessible sidewalks. To permit those trucks to be longer would further (exacerbate) these problems. The sidewalks and corners of our square are used daily by schoolchildren going to Garfield Elementary and Claggett Middle schools." In his letter, Hanwell said the heavier trucks do serious damage to interstates and Ohio Department of Transportation-maintained highways. He said they also increase costs for taxpayers at the local level by the increased stress they put on older bridges and roads that are managed by state and local governments. He said the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates the heavier trucks cause as much as $1.1 billion to $2.2 billion in additional damage to bridges every year. Medina experiences a high volume of truck traffic coming through its Historic District, as three major highways — Interstates 71, 77 and 76 — all are near the city. Truck traffic through Public Square has been a controversial subject for many years. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Hanwell said in 2018 there were 6,831 accidents involving large trucks throughout the state, resulting in 3,489 injuries and 170 fatalities. "We know that allowing even heavier and longer trucks, which have been proven to be more difficult to control and stop, would likely result in even more accidents, with many of them fatal," he said. "While we recognize that commercial trucking is the lifeblood of logistics in our economy, allowing even heavier and longer trucks to become the new normal on our roads would not be in the best interests of our citizens." The CABT said the large trucks are not just operating on the interstate highways. They are running on rural, local and state roads, since no truck loads or unloads freight on an interstate. Local roads account for 95 percent of the 4 million public roadways in the U.S. The CABT said when these trucks run on local roads, their impact might be greater because these roads are more vulnerable to the impacts of the bigger trucks. Roads and bridges off the interstates are sometimes older and in worse shape than the national routes. Nationwide, 66 percent of the bridges classified as "structurally deficient" are owned by the local cities and towns, not the federal government or states. Rural roads and bridges cannot be an afterthought to the debate of allowing heavier and longer trucks on U.S. highways because of the costs to highway safety and infrastructure, the CABT said. The majority of automobile traffic, 56 percent, is on local roads. Rural roads and bridges are at the intersection of significant large-truck activity and where constituents live and work. The CABT said bigger trucks would impose an additional tax burden triggered by further damage to roads that will shift the responsibility to states and localities without any federal source for cost recovery. Contact reporter Bob Finnan at (330) 721-4049 or rfinnan@medina-gazette.com.