Mills Gotcher, an Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) spokesperson, said Wednesday that the new inspection station, also known as a weigh station, will be located on Interstate 40 in Sequoyah County. But she said they are not sure where exactly the station will be located, or if it would be at an abandoned weigh site on Interstate 40 between Muldrow and Sallisaw.
Following Tuesday's announcement of a funding source for the project, ODOT will soon start engineering studies, which will help determine the best locations for the stations, Gotcher said. These stations are expected to be operational within the next six years, and work on the project is expected to begin within the next year.
"We do anticipate having them as close to the state border as possible," Gotcher wrote in an e-mailed response to Your TIMES. All nine stations will be equal in size and equipment and will allow for truckers to drive through so the trucks can be weighed and scanned.
Gotcher said it is estimated that more than 9 million trucks enter Oklahoma at these nine locations annually.
The $61 million project, of which $54 million will be provided by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, will be used to build the stations.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission and ODOT developed the plan to provide ODOT the funds to construct the nine state-of-the-art port of entry inspection stations at no additional cost to taxpayers. Funding will be from the Petroleum Storage Tank Indemnity Fund. A 1-cent per gallon assessment is paid into the fund by petroleum retail marketers when they take a fuel delivery.
Gotcher noted that ODOT is appreciative of the Corporation Commission's vision to secure the funding.
The needed funding to maintain the facilities, which on average are more than 40 years old, has not been available until now. As a result, the state's weigh stations are antiquated, and the facilities are worn out and not properly located, she said.
"They are dilapidated and falling apart," Gotcher said of the current weigh stations.
There are currently only seven inspection sites across the state, of which six are operational, but the conditions of the facilities do not permit a 24-hour enforcement operation.
Gotcher said currently less than 10 percent of commercial vehicles operating on the state's roads are being inspected or weighed. Projected increases of 70 percent in commercial vehicle traffic in the next 20 years will stress an already overburdened system. Research shows that illegal overweight trucks cause the infrastructure to prematurely fail and contribute to accidents and fatalities.
Long term, the cost of damage to the state's bridges and highways from overweight vehicles far outweighs the cost of providing a good port of entry inspection station, Gotcher said.
Gotcher said there will be a total 10 stations in the state once the project is complete. As for the existing structures, only one of the existing stations will be left, and that will be in the state's panhandle.
She said the weigh stations will be manned specifically by Corporation Commission staff, while the weigh stations will be built and maintained by ODOT.
