Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Road Restrictions Go Into Effect Soon In Spokane County

I've been telling everyone for a week now that it's spring. Mostly they respond by laughing at me, but this confirms it; Spokane County announced today that seasonal weight restrictions will begin within the next couple weeks on county roads.

The presence of water in the roadway structure due to spring thaw threatens to destroy the pavement if it is heavily loaded in this saturated condition. Weight restrictions reduce the need for increased road maintenance and auto repairs later this year.

Seasonal road restrictions are usually in effect for approximately 6 weeks. Effected roads are posted with signs indicating maximum allowable weights. Typically, these restrictions do not apply to the average car or pickup truck. However, commercial and construction vehicles may need to lighten their loads in order to comply with the restrictions.

3 comments:

Geo said...

The road structure is not compromised by freeze/thaw cycling. Rather, the presence of water in the structure due to spring thaw threatens to destroy the pavement if it is heavily loaded in this saturated condition.

SRTC Staff said...

Thanks for clarifying @Geo. Was trying to paraphrase the news release into 'everyday' language and didn't do an accurate job.

Geo said...

Thank you for consistent and interesting updates!


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.