Investigation of the Effects of Routine Overweight Truck Traffic on SH4/48

The 75th and 76th Texas Legislatures passed bills allowing trucks of gross vehicle weights (GVW) up to 125,000 lb to routinely use a route in south Texas along the Mexican border. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is concerned about the impact of overweight truck traffic on highways. There is a need to establish the potential impact of overweight truck traffic on Texas roads and evaluate structural requirements for pavements that carry axle loads above legal limits on a routine basis. In this project, researchers investigated the effects of overweight truck traffic on a permitted truck route in the city of Brownsville. This route proceeds from the border checkpoint at the terminus of US77 to the Port of Brownsville via US77, SH4 and SH48. According to the Brownsville Navigation District, 95 percent of the truck traffic originates from the Port of Brownsville and continues south to the border checkpoint at the end of US77.