Grundy County takes aim at overweight trucks

The Grundy County Board heard an update Tuesday night on what the county is doing to help combat overweight trucks on Grundy County roads, including updating the sheriff’s office’s portable scales and upping enforcement.

The board also voted unanimously to hire a new deputy who will handle enforcement on overweight trucks.

County Administrator Mary Kucharz said the initial actions taken were to establish a modified overweight enforcement team at the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, check and calibrate the current portable scales and purchase new scales, and authorize a limited enforcement detail to obtain a better understanding of the issues.

The sheriff’s office also established a special fund to track the fine money generated from the overweight tickets.

Kucharz said the transportation subcommittee reviewed the results at its last meeting.

“The modified enforcement task was a success, even on what we call a limited schedule,” Kucharz said. “The sheriff advised the subcommittee that to increase the hours spent on overweight enforcement, deputies would need to be trained and assigned to this permanent enforcement unit.”

Kucharz said Sheriff Ken Briley would need one new full-time deputy.

The subcommittee also determined that a permanent scale location in Grundy County is needed.

Briley said everyone he’s talked to warned him that Grundy County really needs to get ahead of the coming increase in truck traffic.

Grundy County financial analyst Matt Melvin said hiring an additional deputy to begin the enforcement would cost between $102,000 and $120,000, and with a new truck and equipment, the total cost would be $190,923 on the low end and $208,000 on the high end.

The upfront cost for the permanent scale and electricity would be between $100,000 and $200,000.

The total estimated cost for both phase one and phase two of the project, which involves the hiring of a deputy and the building of a permanent scale and facility to go along with it, would be between $316,000 and $608,000.

“The position cost ranges are obviously comfortable estimates,” Melvin said. “We have collective bargaining agreements and county benefit plans to verify those. Going forward, the salary and benefit package would be recurring costs, while the truck and other onboarding costs would be on the normal replacement cycle for the permanent scale.”

Melvin said the goal with this is to turn a profit and make the streets of Grundy County safer.

Board member Eric Rasmusson said Canadian National’s Chicago Logistics Hub project in Channahon will produce 10,000 to 15,000 trucks once build-out is completed, and the Amazon facility on the Will County side of Channahon still will affect Grundy County.

“The truck traffic is not going to go down, and to get ahead of this and be established, to be ready for all the trucks coming, especially from CN, that’s the backdrop of what’s driving this,” Rasmusson said.

Melvin said the program won’t make a profit in the first year, so there is an investment at first.

Rasmusson said the cost to hire a deputy is a small part of the cost of reconstructing roads.

“We’re trying to save our roads by keeping weights where they need to be, so that’s actually the bigger part of the formula,” Rasmusson said.

Board member Greg Ridenour said even if the Canadian National hub doesn’t get built, Grundy County is already seeing a record number of trucks every year.

“We can control what we can control, and we can’t control what we can’t control,” Ridenour said. “This is something we can control, and it’s something that is needed, something that can be impactful to lessen the impact we’re going to face from all that development coming our way.”

Board member Joe Schiavone said the cargo on these trucks typically are loaded outside the country, and they’re loaded in kilograms with the expectation of taking short trips. They’re not designed to travel the distances that they do in the U.S.

“I’ve seen them, I’d say as many as 50% to 60% that are overweight when they come off the train,” Schiavone said. “They’re already at 80,000 pounds, and so the maximum capacity is 80,000 including the tractor, the chassis and all that other stuff. By the time it gets totally weighed out, high end, they’re going about 120,000 pounds. Low end, they’re right around 80,000.”