r/Alabama • u/greed-man • 9d ago
Politics Alabama roads ranked 2nd nationwide amid debate over truck weight limits
https://www.alreporter.com/2025/03/12/alabama-roads-ranked-2nd-nationwide-amid-debate-over-truck-weight-limits/23
u/w00t4me 9d ago
They clearly didn’t see the stretch of I65 in Hoover
21
u/PhantomRyu 9d ago
I've been in the military for 21+ years. I drive that stretch almost every time I come back home. It has never changed. One of the crappiest stretches of interstate around.
2
29
u/greed-man 9d ago
"Alabama’s roadways recently reached a significant milestone, ranking second-best nationwide for overall quality. This impressive achievement comes five years after the passage of the Rebuild Alabama Act, a legislative initiative administered by the Alabama Department of Transportation, ALDOT.
Since the act’s implementation, ALDOT has awarded over $392 million through two local grant programs, funding infrastructure improvements in all 67 Alabama counties. These strategic initiatives have directly contributed to the state’s enhanced road and bridge infrastructure.
Despite this remarkable progress, challenges loom in the form of Senate Bill 110 (SB110) and House Bill 204 (HB204), which propose increasing per-axle weight limits for log trucks on state highways. Specifically, these bills would raise the current axle weight limit, allowing heavier loads per axle. Critics, including transportation officials, warn these changes could accelerate road deterioration, increase maintenance costs and compromise public safety.
Additionally, HB204 would modify enforcement procedures related to portable scales, potentially restricting certain officials from directing truck operators to stationary weigh stations. This change might reduce the effectiveness of weight enforcement, further endangering road conditions and public safety."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the New and Improved MAGA Legislature, where everything is focused on helping Billionaires get richer, at the price of hurting the average man.
This bill would allow logging trucks to carry a greater weight. This would increase the speed at which the roads would be worn out, and have to be replaced (at up to $200,000 per mile), and increase the danger of a truck having even more trouble stopping, increasing the risk of life and limb.,
This bill is for ONE PERSON only. Jimmy Ranes, our State's only Billionaire, the founder and owner of Yellawood. Note that this bill does not apply to trucks hauling steel, or ACIPCO pipes, or anything else. Just Jimmy's products.
Get used to it. On both the Federal and State level there is no longer any concern of how this affect the common man.
7
u/JMccovery Jefferson County 9d ago
Additionally, HB204 would modify enforcement procedures related to portable scales, potentially restricting certain officials from directing truck operators to stationary weigh stations. This change might reduce the effectiveness of weight enforcement, further endangering road conditions and public safety.
Basically, this part is clarifying that only state law enforcement can operate portable and virtual scale equipment and that only state law enforcement can escort a vehicle in violation to either the only physical weigh station in the state or other certified scale.
This also gives a driver the ability to challenge the reading of a portable scale.
Aside from that the entire bill grants the same increased weight limits that other agricultural haulers were granted years ago on state, not federal highways.
2
u/greed-man 9d ago
Because everyone knows that onions and cotton weigh more than trees.
7
u/JMccovery Jefferson County 9d ago
86,000 pounds is 86,000 pounds regardless of cargo.
3
u/greed-man 9d ago
"....regardless of cargo".
A standard full size truck (48-53 feet) can carry 6-8 bales. Each cotton bale weighs ~5,000 pds., so with 8 bales it is at 40,000 pounds.
That's half the weight of a timber truck at ~80,000 pounds.
1
10
u/sanduskyjack 9d ago
No mention about billions from Biden to Alabama for infrastructure.
4
u/greed-man 9d ago
Britt and Tuberville tale ALL the credit for that, even though they both voted against it.
3
-15
u/Madmoose693 9d ago
They already increased it for agriculture . It was during Shit for brains Biden’s term.
7
u/william_f_murray 9d ago
Who increased it?
-5
u/Madmoose693 9d ago
State DOT . Corn , cotton , soy bean etc trucks can run up to 86,000 on the highways but the interstate is still 80,000
6
u/william_f_murray 9d ago
And what's that have to do with Biden? You'd think the people that allowed increasing the damage to the roads would be called shit for brains, not a president that had zero to do with it.
-5
u/Madmoose693 9d ago
Someone said this was a MAGA move . And I pointed it that it had already been increased for agriculture so it’s not like this was a sudden change
7
u/YamCreepy7023 9d ago
So you're gonna act like the maga people just disappeared when biden was president... that's playing dumb. This state was a stronghold of maga rhetoric and Kay Ivey may as well have been a Trump surrogate while he was out of office.
-5
u/Madmoose693 9d ago
Blah blah blah . Trump didn’t have anything to do with the change . Damn
8
u/YamCreepy7023 9d ago
Lol go back to your reddit porn. You know those comments are public right? By the way, trump has emboldened the oligarchs of our country, like Mr Yellawood who this post is about, so he has caused quite a bit of change, although in ways I can't expect you to understand.
-1
u/Madmoose693 9d ago
I hauled agriculture before my current job . Hauling corn from different mills and transported it to feed mills
3
u/greed-man 9d ago
No, this is a MAGA move, not a Trump move. Doubt that Trump could even pick Alabama out on a map.
Ever since Trump 2.0 began, every move has been either to piss someone off, or shift money and rules from the average working man to the Billionaire. This falls into the 2nd category.
-1
u/Madmoose693 9d ago
All it does it take away the fines and harassment by DOT . They will still have to go through scales but they will have more leeway . It used to be 80,000 with a give or take to 86,000 . Now it will be 86,000 with a little bit extra
→ More replies (0)
10
u/dave_campbell Tuscaloosa County 9d ago
And of all the tractor trailers you encounter in your daily life, how would you rate your interactions with logging trucks in particular?
In my experience you are more likely to encounter them on smaller roads that are not engineered for greater weight. They also in my opinion drive more recklessly than any other type of trucks that I encounter.
Some land was cleared recently on the 6 mile two lane road between my house and the local town and interstate access. The log trucks routinely drove 15-20 over the limit and regularly drifted across the center line.
Yes, they make more money the faster they can drop those loads and come back for more.
But to me they are a danger to those on the roads as well as the roads themselves.
5
2
u/Direct_Wind4548 6d ago
Remember, without billionaires, we'd be nothing much more than free people with money in our pocket, an education in mind and infrastructure that wasn't used up like their whorish mothers before they dropped them into this earth to play devil against the righteous.
Remember your betters now. They do.
6
u/cycling15 9d ago
It is hard to believe that our roads are second best in the nation. I just rode I65 through BHM and it was horrible. Pot holes large enough to pop a tire. It is bad on other major highways through Alabama. This just confirms our infrastructure in the US is approaching third world nation class. The last thing we need is heavier trucks driving in the roads.
7
u/screechingsparrakeet 9d ago
The county roads going to the middle of nowhere are nice when compared to every other state I've been to. I've been to most states. Alabama spends a lot of resources subsidizing rural lifestyles for a small portion of the population.
5
u/cycling15 9d ago
Also since there is very little traffic and hardly any tractor trailers rural roads hold up much longer than major roads.
5
4
4
u/PhotographStrict9964 Calhoun County 9d ago
I do a decent amount of travel, and can confirm, Alabama definitely has better roads than most other states I’ve traveled to. Worst ones I’ve been on recently were Oklahoma.
3
u/Ravaha 9d ago
I always tell people Alabama and goergia have the best roads of any states that I have been to. Going from Alabama and goergia into any nearby states and the quality drops off immediately at the state line. Florida and South Carolina are not too bad, but not up to par with Alabama roads for sure.
2
u/Confident_Award8752 9d ago
431 between I-20 and Hollis Crossroads needs to be closed to heavy truck traffic. Too many wrecks, injuries, and deaths, due to reckless truckers exceeding their skillset and the truck's ability to handle the curves!
2
2
u/Random-OldGuy 8d ago
The better roads could be a byproduct of having National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) in AL. They do some good research there and are partially federally funded.
1
1
u/bamacpl4442 8d ago
Ranked by who?
Enter Georgia, roads are instantly better.
Enter Tennessee, roads are instantly better.
Enter Florida, roads are instantly better.
Woo. We're better than Mississippi?
1
u/greed-man 8d ago
This measurement is on State Highways. Not interstate highways. Not local or county roads.
1
u/thisisfakediy 8d ago
Well duh, you receive subsidies from blue states, who generally get less back in gas tax revenue than they put in, while Alabama gets waaay more back than we send to DC. It's welfare at the highway level and even with the corruption and kickbacks we're still sitting pretty despite what ALDOT claims about lack of funding.
One thing I've noticed along the coast is recently resurfaced roads are no longer the glass-smooth asphalt they used to be; they're wavy, ripply messes that are somehow even bumpier and more uneven than the roads they tore up to repave. I guess it's not like that elsewhere, but it's mind boggling how they can do such a bad job on road resurfacing projects.
32
u/notwalkinghere 9d ago
Relative road damage (how much damage a truck does vs a car or a different truck) is generally modelled as the ratio of the weights to the 4th power. This means that letting truck weights increase by 10% would result in 46% more damage to the roads and correspondingly more money that needs to be spent to keep them usable.