Two days after a bill was introduced in the House that would allow states to set higher weight limits for trucks on Interstates within their borders, a competing bill was announced to keep bigger, heavier trucks off the roads.

U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA-3) Wednesday announced the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act of 2009, which would extend the current weight limit and freeze on triple-trailers to the entire 160,000-mile National Highway System, while still allowing certain exemptions, including for firefighting equipment. The NHS includes both interstate highways and smaller national highways. Most truck size and weight restrictions (53-foot length maximum and 80,000-pound weight maximum) already apply to the 44,000-mile Interstate Highway System.

"The tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis demonstrated the serious safety concerns surrounding already-deficient bridges and roads," said Sen. Lautenberg. "Adding heavier trucks to our roads is simply a recipe for disaster. Our bill would protect our infrastructure and improve safety by helping keep dangerously large and heavy tractor-trailer trucks off our roads."

The Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association and the Teamsters Union expressed their support for the bill.

"Truckers know from firsthand experience that stability, mobility and maneuverability are substantially reduced on bigger and heavier trucks," said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA. "The larger and heavier the vehicle, the more problems it has interacting with other vehicles on the highway. Increases in sizes and weights of commercial motor vehicles will also hasten the deterioration of our nation's roads and bridges."

"Larger, heavier trucks require more stopping distance and have larger blind spots which are factors that we feel could contribute to increased crash risk," added LaMont Byrd, Director of the Teamsters Safety & Health Department of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "In addition, according to a study conducted by the National Surface Transportation and Revenue Study Commission, larger trucks are a major source of damage to highways and bridges. We think that this bill is the right approach to not only improving the safety of our driver membership and the motoring public with which they share the road, but also protecting the highway infrastructure here in the U.S.,"