"We think we've come to the end of the end of a very long road," Upstate Safety Task Force President Barbara Clary said.
View full sizeA large truck passes through the intersection of Jordan and East Genesee streets in the village of Skaneateles on a fall day in 2007. Residents say it is not unusual to see and hear such rigs pass through the streets throughout the day.“We think we’ve come to the end of the end of a very long road,” Upstate Safety Task Force President Barbara Clary said tonight as the first in a series of five public Department of Transportation meetings on the truck issue got under way at the BOCES building in Aurelius.
The task force has been battling for more than 15 years to get the long-haul trucks — especially those from the New York City area hauling garbage to the Seneca Meadows landfill in Seneca Falls — off local roadways
DOT chief engineer Robert Dennison, along with other members of his department and the Governor’s Office, outlined what the state has done already:
Report a problem
Residents should contact the traffic division at State Police Troops C, D and E from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to report problems with trucks. Here are the telephone numbers:
Troop C: 607-561-7400
Troop D: 315-366-6000
Troop E: 575-398-4100
• Banned overweight, oversized through-trucks from several roads in the area through tougher permit rules.
• Nearly doubled truck inspections with more planned.
• Worked with Seneca Meadows to write new contracts requiring haulers to stay on the interstate system.
• Lowered speed limits and used other “traffic calming” methods.
The new landfill contracts will get all the trash trucks heading to Seneca Meadows off local roads by the end of 2011. Dennison said the state will work with the two other private Upstate landfills to revise their contracts as well.
The idea behind all the measures, he said, is to make truck drivers want to stay the interstates.
That can’t come soon enough for John Oxford, Route 38A in Owasco, which is one of the main truck routes. He said trucks still use the road as a shortcut between I-81 in Cortland and Seneca Meadows.
On Saturday, he said his wife counted 30 trucks using the road between 6 a.m. and noon.
Dennison said the problem was enforcement.
“We don’t have the people to enforce it,” Oxford said. “I’ll tell you that right now. Our sheriff … he doesn’t have enough to go around the clock.”
Cathy Calhoun, of the Governor’s Office, urged residents to call their local state police troop’s traffic division with complaints about trucks. Troopers won’t respond immediately, but the complaints will show troopers where to increase patrol in the future.
The DOT will hold meetings Thursday from 7:30-9 a.m., Seneca Falls Community Center, noon-2 p.m. at the Aurora Inn, 6- 8 p.m., Skaneateles Central School District Offices and Tuesday 5-7 p.m. in Ithaca.
John Stith can be reached at jstith@syracuse.com or at 251-5718.