By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Getting a ticket can spoil anyone’s day. But when it’s a $3,000 ticket, it can cost someone their job.
That is the fine that drivers of big rigs have been facing since July if they have ignored posted warnings and crossed over one of the Pawtucket River Bridge (Bridge 550) that spans I-95. On top of a potential $3,000 fine that can be issued to the truck’s carrier, the driver also faces an $85 fine for failing to abide by the warnings and detour signs.

Due to concerns about the corroding structures of the two spans that carry traffic on I-95 north and south over the Pawtucket River, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) put a 22-ton weight restriction into effect on Nov. 27, 2007. Following a subsequent inspection a few weeks later, the weight restriction was further lowered to 18-tons. Trucks with three or five axles were warned to use alternative routes to bypass the bridge, such as I-295 or Route 146.
According to State Police Sgt. David Medeiros, in charge of the Commercial Enforcement Division, said the state police were hired by RIDOT to enforce the limit. However, he noted that this enforcement, while necessary to prolong the life of the bridge, wasn’t so simple. A  typical tractor-trailer, with five axles, weighs about 30,000 pounds empty, so it doesn’t take much of a load to be over the 18-ton (36,000-lb) limit. The average fully loaded tractor trailer weighs about 86,000 pounds, he said. Consequently, Medeiros estimated that 80-90 percent of the trucks stopped by the state police in the first few months were found to be in violation.
Medeiros also said that the initial enforcement effort proved to be difficult and time-consuming. Due to the configuration of that portion of I-95, between exits 27 and 28, there are few safe places to pull over a tractor trailer for an inspection and weigh-in, with certified scales. In most cases, a truck caught heading over the bridge by a state trooper would be stopped. The driver would be asked to open the trailer door, and if the truck was found to be empty, or carrying an obviously light load, the driver would be issued a fine for ignoring the posted warning and then be allowed to continue on the way.
If the truck was fully loaded, the trooper would usually escort the truck driver off I-95 to a plaza on North Main Street, where scales were set up. The truck would be weighed, and the carrier issued a fine of $125 for every 1,000 pounds over the limit, in addition to the fine for the driver. “The whole process took at least an hour,” noted Medeiros. “And in that time, how many other trucks were going over the bridge unnoticed? There just weren’t enough state troopers available. ”
Both the state police and RIDOT officials realized that a better enforcement tool, not centered strictly around load weight, was needed. They petitioned the General Assembly for an additional restriction of no more than two axles per unit. This would allow vehicles such as campers, boat trailers, or light trucks to be excluded from the ban while still targeting the heavier trucks. Most vehicles with two axles are rated for 30,000 pounds, while anything with more than two axles would be typically rated for 50,000 pounds or more, explained Medeiros.
“The two axle restriction gave us another tool. Prior to that, technically, every time we issued a ticket, it was required that a trooper be there with certified scales,” said Medeiros.
This July, the new axle restriction went into effect, with a $3,000 fine for violators. New signs went up, warning of the $3,000 penalty, and drivers of trucks with more than two axles were urged to seek alternate routes.
Medeiros said the state police began doing “soft enforcement,” letting drivers off with just a warning, for a few weeks, but then began writing the heftier tickets in August. “It’s a high fine. It’s even uncomfortable for us, as troopers,” admitted Medeiros. He said, however, that the state legislature set the amount high enough so that it would be a deterrent. “And rightly so,” concluded Medeiros. “It’s to make the bridge last longer until it can be replaced.” He added that the state police and RIDOT have made every effort to get the word out to those in the trucking industry about the detours and the new fines.
Medeiros said that the troopers are allowed to use some discretion when writing the ticket, so not all are getting an automatic $3,000 fine. “We’ve written plenty of them,” he said, of the $3,000 tickets. “However, if the truck is empty, the trooper might just send it on its way, with just a citation to the driver,” he said. Other factors often considered for the citation are if the driver is from out-of-state, or it is nighttime or rush hour, Medeiros said.
If a truck is found with an excessively heavy load, a trooper could add a weight violation fine and additional fines on top of the $3,000 axle fine and $85 fine to the driver, but Medeiros described this as a “worst case scenario.”
Medeiros said that, from Nov. 28, 2007 through Nov. 22, 2008, approximately 11,500 trucks were stopped by state police. The total amount of citations written during that period to drivers for failure in “obedience to devices” is $340,000, the total in fines written to carriers for overweight trucks is $1.6 million. The total in fines issued under the new axle limit, from Aug. 3, 2008 through Nov. 22, 2008, amounts to $406,000.
Adding up all the fines that have been issues since the weight restriction began on Nov. 28, 2007 through Nov. 22, 2008, the total is $2.4 million, Medeiros said.
Collecting the money, Medeiros pointed out, is another story. While the carriers that do get a $3,000 ticket don’t necessarily pay this amount. Any disputes about the fine go through the state’s municipal traffic court, where the fee is often reduced by half, to $1,500. “I’m sure that what they have collected is significantly less,” he stated.
Medeiros said that all of the money goes into the state’s general fund. Both the state police and RIDOT had lobbied to have some of the money go into a restricted account, to pay for more troopers and cruisers an highway repairs, but state officials were reluctant to go along.
While many of the drivers found to be in violation are those who decided to gamble that they wouldn’t be caught, others, he said, have expressed a genuine confusion about where this Pawtucket River Bridge actually is. “It doesn’t look like a bridge. It’s really an overpass,” said Medeiros. “Some have said, ‘I didn’t see a bridge.” Other common excuses from drivers are that they didn’t see the signs, didn’t understand the detour or “didn’t know that they weighed that much,” he said.
Another factor is more a sign of the times. Medeiros cited an example of a young truck driver who was pulled over in Tiverton for going over the similarly restricted Sakonnet River Bridge. When the carrier was notified of the $3,000 fine, the driver was fired on the spot. When the driver was asked why he hadn’t taken an earlier exit to get to his destination and avoided the costly fine, he told the trooper, “But that’s not the way my GPS system told me to go,” said Medeiros, chuckling.
According to RIDOT, repairs are already underway to strengthen the two 50-year-old bridge structures until the bridge can be replaced. Built in 1958 as part of the original Interstate system, the bridge was designed to carry 60,000 cars per day. Today, the volume is almost three times that amount, at 162,000 vehicles per day.