APWA, Coalition Tells Congress ‘No Heavier Trucks’ During Surface Transportation Reauthorization

January 28, 2026

The Honorable Shelly Moore Capito, Chair
Senate Environment & Public Works Committee

The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse, Ranking Member
Senate Environment & Public Works Committee

The Honorable Ted Cruz, Chair
Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee

The Honorable Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member
Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee

The Honorable Sam Graves, Chair
House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure

The Honorable Rick Larsen, Ranking Member
House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure

Chairs Capito, Cruz and Graves and Ranking Members Whitehouse, Cantwell and Larsen:

As the 119th Congress continues its work on surface transportation reauthorization, we urge you to oppose any legislation that would increase maximum truck weight or length limits on federal highways. Our opposition extends to any legislation that would raise truck weight limits as part of a “pilot program,” any state or commodity exemptions or waivers of current federal limits, or provisions that would allow states to regulate truck weight limits for interstate commerce. We also ask that no controversial truck size or weight limits be included in the base text.

Allowing heavier and longer trucks would lead to significant infrastructure damage. The U.S. Department of Transportation studied the impact of various longer and heavier truck configurations on interstates and U.S. highways and found that the additional cost of damage to both roads and bridges would require billions of dollars in new federal spending, adding even more to our budget deficit.

Increases in truck size and weight would have especially severe consequences for local roads and bridges because bigger trucks are not limited to the interstates. These heavier and longer trucks need to run on state and local roads to pick up and drop off freight, as well as for “reasonable access” for fuel, food and other necessities. Local roads and bridges face significantly more damage than interstates because they may be older, not built to the same standards, or already in poor condition.

Local bridges, in particular, will be the most at risk to heavier trucks:

• A recent Coalition Against Bigger Trucks analysis of over 470,000 local bridges from March 2025 found over 68,600 that are not rated to safely accommodate 91,000-pound trucks.
• These local bridges would need to be posted and eventually replaced, costing over $78.7 billion.
• Allowing heavier trucks will only add to the pressure on state, county and municipal governments to find funds to repair these bridges when, at the same time, there are not sufficient revenues today to cover infrastructure maintenance costs.

For these reasons, we ask that you reject any legislative language that would increase current maximum truck weight or length limits as you move forward on surface transportation reauthorization.

Sincerely,

American Public Works Association
National Association of Counties
National Association of County Engineers
National Association of Towns and Townships
National League of Cities
The United States Conference of Mayors
AAA
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
Truckload Carriers Association
Towing and Recovery Association of America, Inc.
Institute for Safer Trucking
Road Safe America
Association of American Railroads
American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association
GoRail
National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association
Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association
Railway Supply Institute
SMART-TD
Coalition Against Bigger Trucks

cc: Members of the House of Representatives
Members of the Senate