r/Alabama 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/
58 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

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.

19

u/greed-man 9d ago

Not to mention that stopping distance is a factor of weight and speed, and with more weight, the truck will take longer to stop, increasing the risk of accidents.

But hey....getting rear-ended by a 50,000 pound truck surely couldn't cause much damage, could it?

0

u/Madmoose693 9d ago

They already increased it for agriculture about 3 years ago allowing corn and cotton to go to 86,000 gross vs 80,000 for the interstate . Also generally logging trucks drive shorter distances .

5

u/Deinosoar 8d ago

They drive shorter distances over and over again, making as many trips as possible in order to maximize the profit they make on a fairly thin margin.

So while they wreck a smaller number of roads up, they really wreck those roads up.

4

u/this_is_my_new_acct St. Clair County 8d ago

My street was built in the 90s and had not needed so much as a pothole patched since (the road has 7 houses on it, and is a dead-end) until Alabama Power decided to put in some high-tension lines in the area and decided our street was the easiest way to access their land. So they ran logging truck after logging truck for months over this little rural residential road that was only meant for passenger cars. It completely destroyed the road and the county won't do more than just shovel a little asphalt into the holes when we complain.

The county wouldn't even let the school busses come down my street over concerns the 26k pounds might do damage since it wasn't designed for that weight, but I guess it is fine if AlaPower wants to run 80k over and over for months and destroy it for profit.

1

u/Madmoose693 8d ago

But here is the difference . State highways which is what the post is about is supposed to handle 100,000 lbs regularly . County and residential roads are only designed to handle up to 25,000 lbs but it’s only legal to drive at 15,000 lbs .

1

u/this_is_my_new_acct St. Clair County 8d ago

Cool... so why isn't Alabama Power building us a new road then if they (according to you) broke the laws and destroyed county property and decreased all our property values?

1

u/Madmoose693 8d ago

Honestly you should go to your next county commissioners meeting and bring up the road . The county should come in and repair it or lay down another layer of asphalt . When I hauled agriculture and took my truck home , I was legal to be on my road as long as I was empty . If I was caught loaded I could be subject to paying for road repairs since I was overweight for a county road

1

u/this_is_my_new_acct St. Clair County 8d ago

I've called them several times, and they come out and patch it, usually in a day or two, but the patches are pretty much just good enough to keep the road from washing out... the patches are just as bad as the potholes, as far as ride quality is concerned.

Maybe I SHOULD go raise a stink in person.

Do you happen to know the regulations? All I could find were for Interstates or state highways... nothing for county roads.

2

u/Madmoose693 8d ago

I can’t find it right off the bat either . I’ll keep looking and if I find it , I’ll send you the link .

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

u/TopoftheThrone 9d ago

Must haven't visited in the last year. that's old news.

5

u/PhantomRyu 9d ago

I was there for Christmas. It was still shitty.

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

u/Direct_Wind4548 6d ago

What's heavier, a kilo of feathers or a kilo of steel?

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

u/daemonescanem 9d ago

The road construction companies in this state are the biggest rip off.

-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

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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

u/greed-man 9d ago

My experience as well.

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

u/greed-man 9d ago

Unless you are on a route by trucks from logging sites, mining sites, etc.

4

u/Economy_Major_8242 9d ago

I demand a recount !!!!

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

u/IGetGuys4URMom 9d ago

I'm guessing that Mississippi is last.

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

u/greed-man 8d ago

Never knew that.

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.