Posted on 02/16/2018 7:45:24 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Atlanta's traffic is legendary and the Georgia DOT says the increase in truck traffic needs to be addressed. Because the Port of Savannah and the Panama Canal have been deepened, more freight is coming in which translates to more semi-trucks traveling in and out of the Atlanta hub. GDOT estimates trucks carry 75 percent of the freight in Georgia and expects truck traffic to double by 2040.
GDOT is in the early stages of planning the I-75 Commercial Vehicle Lanes project. The interstate will stretch from metro Atlanta 40 miles south to Macon. GDOT Operations Director John Hibbard says it would be the first roadway in the U.S. designated for commercial vehicle traffic only. “Not simply identifying lanes saying that this right lane is for trucks, it is its own separate roadway.”
The idea is to redirect north-bound truck traffic that currently shares space with cars on I-75 to two designated barrier-separated lanes for commercial vehicles only on Interstate 75 between McDonough and Macon, complete with its own entrances and exits. Truck-only lanes are usually reserved for short distances
The project is estimated to cost about $1.8 billion and GDOT says it should reduce northbound traffic delays by 40 percent.
The department says another benefit to the commercial vehicle only lanes is lower maintenance costs on the general purpose lanes because without the heavier truck traffic the auto lanes will see less wear.
As truck platooning and autonomous vehicles become more possible, GDOT says the new truck-only lanes will be potential testing grounds.
The state is waiting for a response from the federal government regarding funding for the $1.8 billion project, but say that, regardless of federal funding, Governor Nathan Deal says GDOT will be moving forward with the project using funds gathered by the state’s Transportation Funding Act, which raised fuel prices back in 2015.
Georgia transportation officials are expected to select a general engineering consultant by the end of the year. Construction is slated to begin in 2025 and to be completed by 2029 . The truck-only project is one of 11 new projects under what the state calls the Major Mobility Investment Program.
I was running the Amherst sd contaminated soil job.
They loaded my side dump heavy on the drives.
Nd dot pulled me over and scaled me.
Overall I was good but singularly I was a ton over on the drives.
Chewed some @$$ when I loaded again
“If the trains could haul it better and cheaper they would be hauling it all now.”
I am not making a case for trains, and as a matter of fact, trucks haul stuff cheaper for a number of reasons including the fact that they don’t pay enough to support the damage they do to the nation’s roads. That’s a fact whether you like it or not. It has nothing to do with the quality of the transportation they provide. So from what you wrote I have a choice: Paying for rotten produce brought to me by a train, or paying for you to ruin the roads that I have to use too! Not much of a choice is it. All I am saying is that trucking should pay in proportion to the costs of the infrastructure ( roads ) it uses. If the cost of the goods hauled goes up, so be it, because that way the people who are paying trucks to move their goods are actually paying the true costs associated with that transportation. It isn’t just your fuel, vehicle cost, maintenance of same and you being paid to drive, the roads you you are also a real cost to your business. But right now, you aren’t paying the actual costs there, and somehow you seem to think it’s o.k. to pass those costs directly onto the backs of the taxpayers. Here in California, our state just passed a huge fuel tax and vehicle license fee increase supposedly to fix our roads. My point is that if trucks didn’t use our highways, we probably wouldn’t have needed the increase.
I was in Colorado a few years ago driving from Denver to Sydney, Nebraska. The highway was a 4-lane divided concrete roadway. The right lane was so badly battered that they had posted signs that it was o.k. for trucks to us the fast lane. I guess they had let the trucks beat up the curb lane and didn’t have the money to fix it, so they were going to let the trucks finish off the entire highway by letting them break up the fast lane.
Funny when you think about it.
They’re raming trains down the common driver’s throat, and seem ignorant of the same concept for freight.
So what’s the real motive behind this?
I suspect it’s some Leftist’s idea of a swell way to once and for all force ‘those idiot drivers’ who refuse to give up their private cars, and the ability to go when and where they want in one third the time, and in the privacy of their own car.
Across the street where I work there's a middle school than had a baseball diamond built a year or so back. Intersting watching the construction while they built it. Brought in that "special diamond dirt" you mentioned. Beautiful set up when it was finished. What did the schoool then do? They abandoned it, and within months weeds had overgrown the field. Your liberal school tax dollars at work!
For most commodities, putting a load on a train for a 50-mile trip is like taking an airline flight to a destination you can reach in a car in 90 minutes.
The reason Colorado does not have the money to fix the roads with is because they put almost half of the highway tax they
collect in what they call a general fund, only about half of
the taxes they collect go for the high ways.
And you are wrong about trucks not paying their share as they pay more than their share.
It is not the fault of the truck that the whores who work for the state spends the money wrong.
for the size of the vehicle small cars pays less than their
share as 35 miles per gallon does not amount to much tax.
Trains should haul, trucks should deliver.
So are you one of those truckers who drive 60mph right beside another truck going the same speed and blocking the interstate?
Or a double trailer driver texting and swinging both trailers across 2 lanes?
Is that you?
I’d rather they built a bypass around Atlanta for those of us passing through who don’t stop to keep us moving and away from the commuter traffic.
Build it with NO exit or entrance ramps for 30 or more miles north of south of the city. Just let me drive through there without that hell traffic for 2 hours. Please
THIS.
I guess that you haven’t been to the GA or Atlanta rail yard
How about allowing cars that don’t mind competing with trucks and banning trucks fro traditional paths where truck routes are available?
If trains were equal or superior, there would not be trucks.
Trains are not suited for the task trucks do.
Well, someone got the graft for building it...
Here in NJ our abandoned baseball diamonds are used for cricket by Indian “replacement Americans” - playing the sports Americans won’t play...
Cargo on ships gets on and off in containers. Trains can haul containers. What’s needed is another train route from Macon to 40+ miles north, preferably north of Atlanta, where long distance trucks can pick up and discharge their freight going to and from the ports in the Gulf - skipping the interstates in Atlanta altogether, other than direct deliveries to Atlanta.
I’ve never had truck that couldn’t max out at less than 70mph. The truck I drive now is set at 75. A Cat C15, 6NZ version (probably the best combination of power, fuel economy, and reliability that Cat ever made, and is turning close to 600hp as set.)
**So are you one of those truckers who drive 60mph right beside another truck going the same speed and blocking the interstate?**
When I see that I actually get on the cb and chew out the granny lane trucker, that won’t kill the cruise long enough to let a truck in the hammer lane get around him. There are many trucking companies that have their trucks set at 65. The driver whose truck can do one mph more than another can’t help it if the block head in the granny lane won’t slow up a couple mph to let the other by.
**Or a double trailer driver texting and swinging both trailers across 2 lanes
Is that you?**
Ha! No, I don’t pull doubles. And if I am in traffic, texting doesn’t happen. If I am in light traffic, a short text might go out. It may take miles to type it using my thumb, and my eyes on the road.
It’s multitasking, while driving all sorts of vehicles, that effectively kill.
I hate when a truck decides to pass another truck and takes 5 miles to do so.
Contaminated soil. Done that. Several times when I trucked construction jobs. Once, working another old gas station cleanup, I thought “we need a no smoking sign”. The fuel odor was by far the worst I’d experienced, absolutely overwhelming.
Trains are bad like buses. The trip is great except the endpoints are a deal killer.
People hate walking the extra mile and hate standing in wait in poor weather.
People hate buses.
Shippers hate trains.
If you want to truck goods by train, leave your car home and take the bus.
Ha! And mud flaps coming off is mostly a preventable situation. Too many truck drivers don’t keep an eye on mud flaps good enough. And sometimes the ones working construction will be backing up in muddy conditions, and the flaps get ripped partially or entirely off.
Just remember: the place you live, the place you work, the car you drive, the gas you burn, the road you drive on, the food you eat,...... is made possible by trucks. If you got it, a trucker brought it.
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