Q&A
Discussion on truck weight impact on NYC roads
1:03:05
ยท
171 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer raises concerns about the impact of heavy trucks on New York City roads and questions the Department of Transportation (DOT) about weighing procedures and enforcement. DOT officials explain the challenges of weighing trucks in the city and discuss current efforts with NYPD.
- NYPD has a unit focused on overweight trucks, but weighing operations are challenging due to space requirements
- DOT expresses concern about the impact of heavy trucks on road conditions
- Current weighing efforts are limited, with a focus on the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway)
Gale A. Brewer
1:03:05
One of my questions is on the truck weight, because I know you mentioned it for one specific location.
1:03:10
But generally, at least I see in Manhattan, these massive trucks.
1:03:15
And I'm wondering, do they get weighed?
1:03:18
How do they impact the roads, etcetera?
1:03:20
Because I just don't think they're complying.
Margaret Forgione
1:03:24
Right.
1:03:24
I'll start, and then Eric, Beaton can chime in if I've left anything out.
1:03:28
So, NYPD does have a unit that focuses on overweight, over dimensional trucks.
1:03:36
They have the ability to arrange for weighing as well with portable weigh stations.
1:03:41
But as you can imagine, that's a tricky operation.
1:03:44
You need a lot of space to do it.
1:03:46
You need places to pull them off.
Gale A. Brewer
1:03:47
I've been talking about it for 30 years, so I'm aware.
Margaret Forgione
1:03:49
You're very well aware.
1:03:50
It's very challenging.
1:03:52
What I can tell you is that we have worked very, very well with NYPD on the BQE prior to the weigh in motion.
1:03:59
We had arrangements with them for where they could pull off vehicles, and how we could support them with those efforts.
1:04:06
So if you have I know you see them out and about in your district.
1:04:09
If there are certain locations, that would be helpful to have, and we can do our best to work with NYPD to see if some enforcement could happen.
1:04:16
Okay.
Gale A. Brewer
1:04:16
My my my question would be, just without belaboring it, more discussion, but it seems to me that they're not getting weighed.
1:04:22
I don't know how NYPD is going to be able to keep up with it.
1:04:26
And my question to you is from your roads, because NYPD is not gonna care about your roads.
1:04:31
How does it impact?
1:04:33
Do you have any sense of how many of them there are?
1:04:35
There are very few weighing stations.
1:04:37
These things take up an entire block, an entire block.
1:04:41
Not to mention, you know, tying up traffic.
1:04:45
So my question would be, is there a weighing going on?
1:04:48
Do you have any sense of it?
1:04:50
Don't you care because of the road situation?
Margaret Forgione
1:04:53
We do care, and I'll ask Eric Beeton to elaborate a little bit more.
Eric Beaton
1:04:56
Sure.
1:04:57
And what we do see is heavy trucks have an outsized effect on the contingent of our streets.
1:05:02
Right?
1:05:03
And and we know, you know, realistically, NYPD, particularly with an operation like this, can't be everywhere.
1:05:08
We were very excited
Gale A. Brewer
1:05:09
nowhere on this topic.
1:05:10
Go ahead.
Eric Beaton
1:05:11
Yeah.
1:05:11
We were we're just very excited that we were able to work with our state legislature to get way in motion on the BQE.
1:05:16
We know we're still showing the results of that, but I think that's something that in the future, we'd like to have more automated ability, and we'd need to work with our state colleagues to do that.
Gale A. Brewer
1:05:25
They're called motion sensors, so that means that would weigh the truck as it's going through.
1:05:30
Because the BQE is obviously you have to or the BQE is gonna collapse.
1:05:34
But so you could put up motion sensors.
1:05:36
Is that something I thought there were these weigh stations on the highway, but Yeah.
1:05:40
These trucks can't fit on those tiny little weigh stations.
Eric Beaton
1:05:43
No.
1:05:44
So it's called weigh in motion, which means literally, like, as they go, they they they weigh as they go over.
1:05:49
There's also a camera that records the number of axles on the truck because the the bridge formula is actually based on the number of axles
Gale A. Brewer
1:05:56
on the vehicle.
1:05:56
So we don't have that many of these devices, right, just for the BQE?