ATLANTA – The state Senate passed compromise legislation Thursday that would raise legal weight limits on trucks in Georgia carrying certain types of cargo in certain areas of the state.
The bill, which originated in the Georgia House of Representatives, cleared the Senate 44-5 after the Senate Transportation Committee had reduced the scope of the measure.
The version of the legislation that passed the House early this month would let commercial trucks exceed the current legal weight limit of 80,000 pounds by 10%, for a total of 88,000 pounds, on roads other than interstate highways, which are subject to federal restrictions.
The bill as originally proposed was scaled back before it even got to the Senate. As introduced, it would have applied to all commercial trucks no matter what they were hauling. The House changed it to allow the additional weight only for trucks carrying logs, agricultural products and livestock, granite, concrete or solid waste.
The Senate then reduced the bill’s scope further by removing granite, concrete, and solid waste from the types of cargo eligible for hauling at 88,000 pounds.
Other Senate changes restrict the weight exemption to trucks hauling loads within 75 miles of the cargo’s point of origin and prohibit trucks above the 80,000-pound weight limit in metro Atlanta.
Georgia farmers and loggers have told lawmakers they need heavier trucks to reduce the number of loads they have to haul.
The agriculture and timber industries have used an executive…
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