Recent rainstorms in Washington Parish may have been good for grass and other vegetation that is beginning to come back from winter.
But the rain hasn’t been good at all for some motorists who drive on the Enon Highway (LA16) south of Franklinton. That’s because the rainfall created a muddy mess on the highway near several gravel pits.
Some residents who live south of Franklinton contacted The Era-Leader about the muddy mess on Highway 16. One man said he washed his car twice in recent days, and it needs to be washed again. Another resident reported that some northbound drivers on Highway 16 actually drove in the southbound lane to avoid the muddy mess when it was at its worst.
Last week the editor of The Era-Leader drove down the highway and saw the areas that were causing the complaints. Trucks pulling out of the gravel pits were tracking both mud and gravel runoff onto the road. (The problem was much worse for the first few days after a heavy rainstorm, and Highway 16 has cleared up quite a bit since then. But even inside the Franklinton city limits, Main Street still shows signs of the dirt and gravel runoff tracked by the trucks.)
This is hardly the biggest problem the parish faces but at the point where drivers can’t keep their cars clean and at the point where drivers are actually crossing into the opposite lane to avoid the mess, it needs to be addressed.
The heavy rainfall made the entrance/exit roads to the gravel pits more muddy than usual and that added to the mess on the highway, but much of the gravel that is extracted from the ground is already wet. Dirty water runs off from the back of the trucks when they are hauling wet gravel. One resident who lives near Enon said that trucks leak runoff for miles after leaving the gravel pits.
The gravel pits are privately owned businesses which pay commercial property taxes to Washington Parish and which hold the appropriate permits to operate. Trucks that haul the gravel from the pits pay state taxes to use the highways. Most of those gravel truck drivers are good folks who are just trying to make a living.
However, there is a difference between “using” the highways and creating a muddy mess that inconveniences other drivers and might even be a hazard.
Louisiana Department of Transportation District Engineer Dalton Williams, based in Hammond, said it’s against the law for trucks to spill or track anything onto the public highways. He cited a specific Louisiana Revised Statute that makes it clear.
But having a statute on the books and enforcing it are two different animals.
Truck safety regulations in Louisiana are generally enforced by the Transportation Safety division of the Louisiana State Police. These special troopers conduct spot checks and monitor truck safety and truck driver safety. While they do work sometimes in Washington Parish, they have a large area to cover and cannot be up here constantly simply because of mud and gravel runoff being tracked onto the pavement of Highway 16.
Despite that, The Era-Leader was told that troopers will try to keep an eye on the Highway 16 situation.
It was also noted to The Era-Leader that the increased water content of a gravel load may be increasing the total weight of a gravel truck. As DOTD District Engineer Dalton Williams pointed out, increased weight of a truck always puts more wear and tear on a highway, increasing the cost of maintenance for the taxpayers. Both Highway 16 south of Franklinton and nearby Highway 437 from Enon down into St. Tammany Parish take a regular beating from heavy gravel truck traffic.
And the increased weight of water can also push the gravel trucks closer to their allowed weight limit.
Some people believe that gravel trucks are completely exempted from weight limits in Louisiana, but that’s not true. They are only exempted from axle weight limits, and then only if the total combined weight of the truck and its load fall within the allowed total.
For a gravel truck to be exempted from state axle weight limits in Louisiana, its total weight (truck + load) can’t exceed the state maximum.
A truck driver can’t say, well, my load of gravel is wet and it weighs more, so that’s why I am over the limit. The weight limit for trucks doesn’t have a variance based on wet or dry loads.
Gravel pits and gravel trucks have long been controversial in Washington Parish. The mud and mess that were recently on Highway 16 may not be a large problem, but it is symbolic of the antipathy that some parish residents have for the gravel trucks that are a constant presence on local highways.
Gravel is a non-renewable natural resource -- once it’s gone, it’s gone. It doesn’t grow back. That’s one of the reasons why the Washington Parish Government tried to enact a gravel tax some years ago, only to be shot down in Baton Rouge.
This is an article about a problem, but unfortunately it doesn’t offer a solution. At least the article might bring the problem to the attention of parish officials who may not be aware of it. Those who are interested in this situation should wait for the next heavy rainfall and then drive down the Enon Highway just south of Franklinton.
