SPRINGDALE, Ark. — A new study conducted by a highway and transportation safety advocacy group has found that potential changes to federal truck weight limits could lead to significant damage to bridges nationwide, including in Arkansas.

The Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (CABT) said their study suggests that raising the weight limit from the standard 80,000 pounds to 91,000 pounds could force the maintenance or replacement of 2,208 bridges in Arkansas alone, with a price tag of over $2 billion.

“That falls on the back of taxpayers and local governments that simply are not receiving dedicated funds from the federal government,” Director of Advocacy for CABT Emily DeLuca said. “As a lot of these bills are written, the local governments are not considered. And so there is a really high taxpayer cost associated with this.”

DeLuca said the 91,000-pound number has been floated around by legislators in recent years.

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