Spring weight limits take effect on southwest roads

By Ian MacKay

Truckers must now haul lighter weights on secondary highways and rural municipal roads through the southwestern part of the province.

Spring weight restrictions started on Friday “to safeguard key links of the province's road network as temperatures begin to get warmer,” a Highways Department statement said.

“As the ground begins to thaw,” the measure to cut allowable load weights by 10 to 15 per cent returns “each year to protect key transportation infrastructure for the long term,” Kim Gartner, the highways minister, said in the statement.

Restrictions in southwest Saskatchewan took effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 20 and could remain for six weeks. They’ll be phased in throughout the province as weather warms up elsewhere.

“These restrictions protect the surface and ground beneath these roads, which become wet and soften with spring thaw,” the statement said.

For example, the maximum weight is 8,000 kilograms for vehicles travelling on Highway 31 to the Herschel access road and on Grid 656 from Highway 4 to the Plenty access.