ATLANTA – Legislation to increase the limit on commercial truck weights in Georgia cleared a state House committee Thursday over the objections of local government officials, traffic safety advocates, and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The House Transportation Committee approved the bill 18-11 following an afternoon-long hearing that lasted more than five hours.
House Bill 189 would raise the legal limit on commercial truck weights in Georgia from 80,000 pounds to 90,000.
In reality, trucks weighing up to 95,000 pounds already are being allowed in the Peach State under an emergency order Gov. Brian Kemp signed nearly three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic, said Rep. Steven Meeks, R-Screven, the bill’s chief sponsor.
While truck weights have been a contentious issue the General Assembly has debated for years, supporters said the three years of experience with the emergency order are good reason to approve higher truck weights permanently.
“We’ve been doing this,” former Georgia Rep. Chad Nimmer, a board member at the Georgia Forestry Association, told the committee. “We’re at a unique time because we have evidence now.”
A coalition of Georgia’s agriculture and timber industries support the bill.
Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, said the proposed increases in truck weights would let farmers move their products on fewer trucks, saving 172,000 truck trips per year, according to a University of Georgia study.
Fewer truck trips translate into savings for local businesses, said Toby McDowell, who runs a logging company in Butts County.
“I’m one of the few people who can say the pandemic saved my business,” he said.
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