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The Washington County Commissioners have some concerns surrounding big trucks driving on county roadways.

District Three Commissioner Mike Dunlap, the Chairman for the Washington County Board of Commissioners, said a big truck is expected to travel over some county roads towards the end of February. He said they should know more next week, but what they do know now is that the truck is big and it is carrying a lot of weight.

The truck is 197-feet long and weighs 587,000 pounds. It is anticipated to be on county roadways that have chip sealed base with a two-inch black top overlay.

Commissioner Dunlap said they want to protect the investment that taxpayers have when it comes to the upkeep of county roads, because they help pay for the overlay. He said the roads take an enormous amount of truck traffic already.

District One Commissioner Mitch Antle said they do not have any authority, either independently or collectively, to tell someone that they cannot travel on a public roadway. But because of the permitting process for the over-sized, overweight loads, Commissioner Antle said not engaging County officials when that movement takes place off of a State-maintained highway onto a County-maintained road, there was no mechanism in place for them to be notified.

A couple years ago, Commissioner Antle said he placed a permit restriction on Washington County as a whole. He said he did this so that the County is at least notified, and that they are able to tell the over-sized, overweight movements what structures they are going to run into or compromise. It also gives Washington County the opportunity to get basic information from them so if the roadways suffer any damages from these big trucks, the County will be able to recover from those damages.

This being said, Commissioner Antle still does not think the truck being on the county roadways is necessary.