Town joins fight for big-rig ban

Lawrence has formally asked the state Department of Transportation to remove Route 206 from the New Jersey Access Networks for Trucks.

By: Lea Kahn
   Township officials have formally asked the state Department of Transportation to remove Route 206 in Lawrence from the New Jersey Access Networks for Trucks.
   The township filed its request Feb. 23 to have the entire length of Route 206 excluded from the approved list of roads for 102-inch-wide trucks and trucks that have two attached trailers, said Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun.
   Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman instituted a statewide regulation in 1999 that required 102-inch-wide trucks and trucks carrying two trailers to use roads in the National Network, such as the New Jersey Turnpike and interstate highways. Large interstate trucks were not permitted to use Route 206 unless they were seeking repair or lodging.
   But in 2000, the American Trucking Association and a trucking company sued in U.S. District Court. Last year, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals found the state’s regulations to be unconstitutional, and Gov. Whitman’s ban was overturned.
   In the wake of the court ruling, state DOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri proposed a new set of regulations that would permit large trucks to use the New Jersey Access Network while they are en route to a delivery destination. The commissioner held a forum on the proposal at Rider University last month.
   Township officials made a pitch to Commissioner Kolluri to remove Route 206 from the New Jersey Access Network at the Feb. 13 meeting. They followed up with the Feb. 23 report seeking exclusion for Route 206.
   The DOT, meanwhile, is still reviewing the feedback and comments it received at the public forum, said DOT spokesman Tim Greeley. The agency expects to complete its review of the comments by late April or early May, he said.
   The township’s exclusion request included a list of accidents that occurred on the state highway in 2005 and 2006, and a report prepared by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission last year that suggested improvements to Route 206 because of increased traffic demands.
   The request also noted that Route 1, which traverses Lawrence Township, is listed as an acceptable route on the New Jersey Access Network and suggested that trucks be directed to use that roadway instead of Route 206.
   "Under law, the township can make an exclusion request for reasons of safety, lane size, the frequency of accidents and speeds that are not conducive to truck traffic," Mr. Krawczun said. "We have identified a lot of those issues as being relevant to Route 206 in Lawrence as the basis of the justification for asking for Route 206 to be excluded from the New Jersey Access Network."
   Mr. Krawczun said the speed limit along Route 206 through the village of Lawrenceville is 25 miles per hour, which is not a speed that is conducive to truck traffic. He also noted the presence of many schools along Route 206, such as The Lawrenceville School, Rider University and Notre Dame High School.
   There also are issues with the way the road is configured, he said. The intersection of Monroe Avenue/Hendrickson Road with Route 206 is a problem because the streets intersect on a curve, near a traffic light at the intersection of Lawrenceville-Pennington Road and Route 206. Cars often wait in line on Route 206 South at the traffic light, and large trucks traveling on that section add to the unsafe conditions.
   The manager also pointed to the lack of shoulders along Route 206 in the northern part of the township. There is nowhere for a truck to pull off the road. A shoulder also is lacking on Route 206 as it passes through the village of Lawrenceville, where the road is next to the sidewalk.
   The Feb. 23 exclusion request report noted that many houses along Main Street in the village of Lawrenceville have been included on the National Register of Historic Places, and the village itself is part of a national historic district.
   "There are many homes from the late 1600s to the early 1700s and the continuation of heavy truck traffic on the roadway will have a detrimental effect on these vital historic treasures," according to the exclusion request.