A bill that would allow certain types of heavy loads by motor vehicles to exceed weight limits on state and county roads has passed a Senate committee and is now eligible for floor debate. The bill allows for raw forest products from fields to storage, processing, or other commercial facilities and those vehicles may weigh up to 130,000 pounds with a permit. Those permits may be issued by the state department of transportation or local authorities at $175 per year. Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius opposes Senate File 184, “The hauler would be allowed to travel across non-primary roads, so county roads or city roads, from their place of origin to the nearest primary road without talking to the county or the city that they may be traveling across. So the biggest implications there is the state doesn’t know what our roads can handle, what our bridges can handle, and they’re granting a permit on a system they just don’t know about.” He adds that bridges need to be taken into consideration, “The bridges wouldn’t be rated, so now a heavy load could be crossing them. And that bridge may not be safe to carry 130,000 pounds. It may be perfectly fine for 95,000 pounds, so we haven’t posted it or anything, but go up to 130,000 and we could have some significant issues, and some potential bridge failures.” Thorius added that an amendment that would be helpful would be to only allow counties to authorize the permits on their roads, as they know which bridges and roads can support such weight, while they’re also the entity responsible for repairs of the roads.