By Lindsey Frazier, Features Editor
Commercial drivers will soon have fines to pay for using city roads as shortcuts during their deliveries, as the Gadsden City Council voted to move forward with restrictions for semi-trucks on city roads on Tuesday.
“This is something going along with cleaning up Gadsden,” Mayor Craig Ford said. “With our own paving crews, we continue to pave roads, and trucks continue to use the wrong routes.”
The truck routes will include any state-owned and maintained roadways, according to Heath Williamson, City of Gadsden city engineer. The majority of roadways in city areas are not designed to withstand the weight of these larger trucks, he said, so to ensure longevity of the roadways, the city will do what it can to keep large weight-bearing trucks off these roads.
However, this will not affect deliveries to local businesses.
“The through trucks are to stay on those state routes, and not take shortcuts through the city,” Williamson said. “But when they need to make a delivery, they’ll have a manifest. So, police officers see a truck on a non-state route and pull that truck over. If its manifest shows that it is directly routed to that delivery location, that’s fine.”
Truck drivers are to use the most efficient path to and from their delivery locations instead of continuing on city streets, Williamson said.
City Council President, Kent Back, said during his seven years in office he receives constant calls about tractor trailers driving in neighborhoods, which are not currently built for trucks.
“The integrity of the pavement isn’t built for that weight load,” Back said. “It compromises our streets, which makes us have to repave quicker than we should be repaving, and it’s just a safety hazard.”
Although the truck route is not an entirely new concept, the city has had ordinances in place, this will enable the enforceability of the route. Law enforcement will now be able to pull over and fine trucks that are not on the correct roads, according to Williamson.
The city will work with the Alabama Department of Transportation on this project, and will also have to consult with GPS companies on the implementation of the new routes on their mapping systems, which typically route drivers through the city, according to Williamson.
Council member, Tonya Latham, brought the issue to the attention of the council earlier this year, as her district has seen increased deterioration of roadways due to use of large trucks.
“I really want to thank you, councilmen, thank you mayor and those who are working on the truck route,” Latham said. “It’s going to make a big difference, a huge difference, and us passing it today is taking steps to make our neighborhoods safer.”
