As many of you know, a new law, AB 678/Act 167, became effective May 19th of this year. This law allows firms to deliver things like logs, wood chips, pulpwood and Christmas trees in loads up to 98,000 pounds, so long as, they increase the number of axles from five to six and no single axle carries more than 18,000 pounds. Also, these loads have to be transported on vehicle combinations (e.g. a truck with a pup trailer or a tractor semi-trailer combination). Straight trucks with six axles are not eligible.
Act 167 changes the definition of ‘forest products’ to include ‘intermediary lumber’, in addition to logs, pilings, posts, poles, cordwood products, wood chips, saw dust, pulpwood, fuel wood and Christmas trees. The law does not define ‘intermediary lumber’.
More information with regard to Act 167 can be obtained from the following newsletter, which was posted on WisDOT’s web site.
WisDOT has completed a process to identify state-owned bridges and highway segments that, because of weight limitations, will not be available as routes for these heavier loads. Bureau of Structures staff analyzed state bridge inventory to determine the impact of the 98,000-pound loads and developed a list of 58 state-owned bridges that would need to be posted for 45 tons. (As you would expect, adding an extra axle does not lessen the impact of these loads on our bridges.) Staff then correlated the results on state-owned bridges to the local bridge inventory and developed general guidelines that local bridge owners could use when considering the impact of the 98,000-pound loads on their bridges. (Please see the following attached document.)
As you know, bridge performance depends on many variables, including truck axle loads and axle spacings, as well as, bridge span lengths, span configurations, material types and condition. This document identifies the two truck configurations that were used to analyze the impact of Act 167 on our state-owned bridges. This document also identifies categories of structures based on bridge types, span configurations and inventory load capacity. It is our recommendation that local bridge owners should take a look at their bridge inventory and identify those bridges that fall into the listed categories.
Based on our analysis on state-owned bridges, we recommend that category A, B, C, D, and E bridges should be considered for posting unless an analysis has been performed to determine that they have the capacity to carry all truck loads allowed under Act 167. This recommendation applies to steel, concrete, prestressed concrete and truss type bridges meeting the listed criteria. A query of our bridge data yielded 1113 locally-owned bridges that fall into this group.
We did not analyze our timber, concrete box and prestressed channel type bridges. As such, we recommend that the load carrying capacity for these bridge types (category F) should be verified for the loads allowed under Act 167. A query of our bridge data yielded 1070 locally-owned bridges that fall into this group.
WisDOT
personnel will query our bridge data and develop lists of locally-owned highway
bridges that fall into categories A thru F.
This should help you determine the impact of Act 167 on your bridge
inventory and apply the general guidelines listed in the attached
document. These lists will be
distributed to you in the near future via our Regional Bridge Maintenance
Engineers.