“Law enforcement and city government leaders flew to Washington, D.C., Tuesday evening to ask lawmakers to get a handle on a growing problem — big, heavy trucks.

There are 413 bridges in Montgomery County. Of those, 36 would not hold 91,000-pound semi-trucks, said Kurt Althouse, city manager for Vandalia.

Replacing those 36 bridges would not be cheap. Althouse puts the cost at an estimated $59 million.

“Our goal is to get ahead of this,” Althouse said in an interview Tuesday before his flight.

Althouse joined city officials from across the nation in the trip to Washington, including representing the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks, a nonprofit organization that for decades has lobbied against federal legislation that would let trucks get longer or heavier.”

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