A federal proposal to allow extra-long double-trailer trucks on local roads has been struck down by Congress.
Under the proposal, multi-trailer trucks up to 84 feet long would have been allowed to travel on roads in the national highway system, including portions of Route 58, Sound Avenue, Route 48 and Route 25.
The proposal had been tucked into a federal transportation spending bill that was previously passed by the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate.
But the big trucks provision was dropped from the final version of the bill, which was approved last Thursday by both the House and the Senate.
“I’m thrilled with the way the final version of the transportation bill came out,” said Representative Lee Zeldin in an interview today.
He described the effort as a “battle that crosses all kinds of lines” – both partisan and geographic.
“Other congressional districts – with large federal interstate highways – are different than the North Fork with its two-lane roads that are not meant to handle bigger, larger, heavier trucks,” Zeldin said.
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″>”The community is real happy about the congressman’ s efforts on our behalf,” Southold Supervisor Scott Russell said. “This was the result of a very active community, support and cooperation of all levels of government and a responsive congressman. Communities that rise up to be heard can and do make a difference.”
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Local civic leaders expressed satisfaction with the news.
“The roads on the North Fork are wholly inadequate to have additional truck traffic and truly inadequate to have heavier-duty truck traffic,” said Robert Hanlon, president of the Orient Association. “Putting larger and heavier trucks on these roads would have been extremely disruptive to the community.”
Hanlon says he has worked with local civic associations and elected officials to advocate removing the multi-trailer truck provision from the transportation spending bill.
Federal spending bills are often packed with many extra proposals such as this one. Though such extra proposals may not have anything to do with the bill’s stated goal – in this case, funding highway and transit spending – they are usually the result of bi-partisan negotiations that serve to move the bill through both chambers of Congress and garner support in both parties.
This is the second victory against local truck traffic in recent months: In April, another proposal that would have diverted 3,000 tractor-trailers onto local roads was scrapped by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council.
That proposal included an attempt to divert tractor-trailer traffic from I-95 to the Long Island Expressway by way of Route 25, Route 58 and the Cross Sound Ferry in Orient.
“Our roads are just not made for that kind of traffic,” said Anne Murray, vice president of the East Marion Civic Association. “They’re hardly made for the kind of traffic we have now.”
Hanlon pointed out that roads on the North Fork are frequented by tractors and other slow-moving farm vehicles. “It’s a two-lane road with no room for passing,” Hanlon said. “Additional traffic and heavier tractor-trailers would be extremely detrimental.”
