Joliet turning to high-tech solution to track truck traffic

Joliet is eying a mobile unit that could catch semitrailers rumbling into neighborhoods where they don’t belong and provide truckers advance warning of low underpasses where they might get stuck.

The system could be deployed around town much like the digital speed warning signs that police use in areas where speeding becomes a problem.

“We expect this is going to cure a lot of our complaints and problems with the trucking industry on the south side of town and other places where trucks are not where they’re supposed to be,” Police Chief William Evans said at a City Council committee meeting where the system was reviewed earlier this month.

The full council will vote Tuesday on a $156,000 contract to lease a Portable LiDAR-Based Vehicle Detection and Warning System for three years from HyPoint Solutions.

The system is equipped with sensors, cameras and timers that will allow the city to issue citations to truckers that drive through areas where they are not permitted, HyPoint CEO John Caya told the council’s Public Safety Committee on July 2.

Caya said the Illinois Department of Transportation uses a HyPoint system to monitor trucks passing through an interstate weigh station in downstate Maryville.

“We’re working with state troopers, and they’re issuing citations from there,” he said.

The system also can be used as an aid to truckers as they approach underpasses where their semitrailers may not fit, Caya said. The same sensors that detect whether trucks are illegal for certain city streets can inform unsure truckers whether they will be able to get through a tight underpass.

“We can display how tall you are, how wide you are,” Caya said.

The city has a few underpasses in and around the downtown area where trucks get stuck or hit the bridge as they pass through.

The committee opted for the mobile unit, although HyPoint also has sensors that can be installed on light poles to be used on an ongoing basis at selected locations.

Evans has been exploring potential truck monitoring systems since at least September, when the city approved a controversial warehouse project at Rowell Avenue and Laraway Road.

Residents on Rowell Avenue opposed the warehouse, telling city officials that too many trucks already were going north on Rowell into the residential area instead of using the designated truck route on Laraway.

The city and warehouse developer agreed to create a turnaround area that would give trucks a spot to turn around and head back to Laraway.

But Mayor Terry D’Arcy also pointed to the police department’s research into truck-detection cameras, calling them a potential “game changer” in addressing problems from trucks going illegally through residential areas.