Rutland Herald

Four towns unite to deal with truck traffic

December 2, 2000
By BRUCE EDWARDS Herald Staff

WALLINGFORD - Spurred by OMYA's plans to open a new quarry in Danby, four Rutland County towns on Friday announced the formation of a Municipal Transportation Compact to deal with the issue of increased truck traffic along the towns' rural roads.

Middletown Springs, Tinmouth, West Rutland and Wallingford have banded together to coordinate their efforts at gathering information. Their goal is to come up with a plan to cope with future increased truck traffic in the four-town area.

OMYA Inc. is proposing to open its Jobe Phillips marble quarry in Danby and truck the mineral north to its calcium carbonate plant in Florence. OMYA's plans call for 40 round trips a day, six days a week. A fully loaded tractor trailer truck weighs 76,000 pounds.

The most likely route from Danby would be east on Hoisington Cross Road, north on East Road in Tinmouth to Route 140 into Wallingford, then north along Route 7 to Florence.

The towns have expressed concerns that the quarry and the resulting truck traffic would not only damage their roads but adversely affect the quality of life.

With a partially snow-covered Route 140 in the background, representatives from the four towns and the Conservation Law Foundation stood along the side of West Hill Road and laid out their concerns and plans.

Mark Sinclair of CLF stressed Friday that the towns were not against trucks but were simply concerned about the impacts on their roads and their quality of life.

"It's an old road system that can't handle high levels of five-axle trucks day after day after day," said Sinclair, whose organization is lending technical and legal assistance to the consortium of four towns.

That view was shared by representatives of the four towns and by a traffic consultant hired by the compact.

A recent study conducted by Lamoureux & Dickinson found that Route 140 and the other town roads can't absorb much more heavy traffic.

"Our findings from that were that they are pretty much at their capacity at the present time in terms of the volumes of the makeup of the traffic presently using the roadways," said Roger J. Dickinson, a partner in the Essex Junction firm.

Dickinson said Route 140 carries an estimated 1,200 cars a day with 2 percent of the traffic falling into the category of heavy trucks. OMYA's proposal of 40 round trips (80 single trips) a day would mean a five-fold increase in heavy truck traffic, he said.

He said one fully loaded 80,000 pound truck would cause as much road damage as 9,600 cars. Since not all trucks are fully loaded, the average heavy truck load equates to as much damage as 3,000 to 5,000 cars.

Dickinson said Route 140 and similar arteries were narrow and often twisting roads, with steep grades, limited sight distances, and poor drainage. In addition, he said rural roads weren't built to the same standards as a Route 7 or an interstate highway.

He said increased heavy truck traffic also raised safety concerns because the roads were used by pedestrians, cyclists, school buses and slow moving farm equipment.

Because towns are legally responsible for maintaining the roads, Dickinson said the increased maintenance costs would be aggravated during the winter and spring months when roads were particularly vulnerable to damage.

West Rutland has a long history of supporting the marble industry. But Town Manager Jason Simcock said the town could not support OMYA's possible use of Route 133 and Clarendon Avenue.

Clarendon Avenue is an historic, mostly residential section of town that is also home to many of the town's recreation facilities, Simcock said.

Wallingford Road Commissioner Ed Crelin pointed out while OMYA's trucks weighed 76,000 pounds fully loaded and 36,000 pounds empty, most town roads were rated for a maximum weight of 24,000 pounds.

While the four towns are concerned about safety and increased road maintenance, Middletown Springs spokesman Robin Chesnut-Tangerman said the character of the towns would be damaged as well.

"If that kind of truck traffic were to come down through downtown Middletown Springs, there's no way the town can handle that sort of traffic," said Chesnut-Tangerman, who noted the town's absence of sidewalks.

Even if Route 140 and the other roads could be upgraded to accommodate increased truck traffic, Marshall Squier of Tinmouth said many residents liked things just the way they were.

"Not only are the roads not capable of this, we don't want them capable of this," Squier said. "We want this kind of life we're used to."

While OMYA's proposed 23-acre quarry was the major impetus in forming the compact, Sinclair of the CLF said the aim of the compact was to come up with a comprehensive and balanced truck management program that dealt with all major truck proposals.

He expressed hope that other towns would join the compact. He said that should OMYA file an Act 250 permit application for its quarry, the Municipal Transportation Compact intended to participate in the proceedings.

One notable absence from the compact is the town of Danby, where the proposed OMYA quarry would be built.

Danby resident Robert Easton said while his town was a no-show at the news conference, there were Danby residents who were concerned about the quarry and its impact on neighboring towns.