Citation

Weissman J, Harrison R. J. Transp. Res. Forum 1998; 37(1): 1-14.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Transportation Research Forum)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) nations, Canadian and Mexican truck size and weight limits are substantially higher than those permitted on the Federal aid system of the United States. Currently, a NAFTA Land Transportation Standards subcommittee is considering a variety of truck related issues, including size and weight harmonization. If this process selects a typical Canadian or Mexican heavy truck as the NAFTA configuration, productivity gains will need to be balanced against the marginal increase in infrastructure costs. This paper evaluates the impacts of adopting two of the most widely used truck types -- one Mexican, one Canadian -- on the bridge system of the U.S. Interstate highway network. It uses a model specifically designed to calculate bridge impacts at the network level, and reports both replacement costs for the deficient structures and the user delay costs incurred when the structures are being reconstructed.