Cooperation with Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association to Define Truck Effects on Bridges in Wisconsin

The State Department of Transportation (DOT) recently revised load limits for highway bridges in Wisconsin to allow heavier trucks, particularly if truckers had additional axles attached to their trucks to spread loads. Most of the companies involved in transporting timber in northern Wisconsin added the required extra axle at substantial cost. Unfortunately the load ratings for bridges on most county highways are set by local officials and may not reflect actual load capacities. Though the truckers added the extra axles many counties still placed load restrictions on essential bridges on local roads. This project will focus on developing guidelines to aid county officials in deciding whether load ratings are needed, evaluate whether selected posted bridges should be posted, and look at defining usable routes for timber haulers. Removal of non-essential load ratings will save the Wisconsin trucking industry many thousands of dollars in fuel costs and reduce truck emissions by shortening haul routes. The objective of the planned work is to develop guidelines for decision makers in evaluating whether highway bridges need to have truck load limits and what limits are appropriate. The research team will do this by working with the trucking industry in northern Wisconsin, specifically the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association (GLTP) of Rhinelander, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), and County highway officials to clearly identify the problems and possible solutions by working cooperatively.

• Record URL:
  http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/02-14/

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $5200.00
• Contract Numbers:

  CFIRE 02-14

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)

  University of Wisconsin, Madison
  1415 Engineering Drive, 2205 Engineering Hall
  Madison, WI  United States  53706
• Project Managers:

  Waidley, Greg

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Wisconsin, Madison

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  1415 Engineering Drive
  Madison, WI  United States  53706
• Principal Investigators:

  Oliva, Michael

• Start Date: 20080701
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20090630
• Source Data: RiP Project 21447

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Axle loads; Haul distance; Highway bridges; Research projects; Timber; Wooden bridges
• Uncontrolled Terms: Load carrying capacity; Truck loads
• Geographic Terms: Great Lakes Region; Wisconsin
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01468369
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
• Contract Numbers: CFIRE 02-14
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 3:49PM