The Oklahoman By Rod Cleveland, Guest Columnist July 16, 2021
I have served the residents of District 1 here in Cleveland County for the past 14 years as a commissioner. One of my many duties is maintaining our highway system. We have always faced maintenance costs that outpace our available funding. While we need innovative solutions to address our pressing transportation and infrastructure needs, allowing heavier and longer trucks on our roadways — as many are asking Congress to do — is not one of them. Heavier and longer trucks on our roads will tear them up more quickly and be a major safety threat for motorists. Congress is debating an infrastructure bill. Special interests in Washington are pushing to force longer and heavier trucks onto our local roads, and it’s all of us as taxpayers who would foot the bill for the additional damage. Previous proposals for bigger trucks were defeated by broad bipartisan majorities in Congress. But the small number of companies looking to improve their bottom line at our expense is back and more vocal than ever.
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