The Pulaski County Highway Department is encouraging vehicles weighing more than eight tons to contact their department before driving on county highways.
This week, the Pulaski County Commissioners agreed to issue a letter to the public reminding them of the effective dates of the county’s position on maintaining quality roads.
Highway Department Superintendent Terry Ruff says the advisory letter attempts to make Pulaski County more consistent with neighboring counties.
“We have several of the surrounding counties,” says Ruff. “The bottom line is some of them have frost laws and some of them don’t and this was sort of a guideline we wanted to go by, I guess.”
Between February and April, it is considered essential for heavy traffic to avoid causing additional damage while roads are defrosting from winter to spring temperatures.
Pulaski County has already experienced difficulty maintaining its roadways in the face of reduced state funding, though that may change once a solution is worked out in the General Assembly this session.
The County says they want to avoid penalizing everything that happens on their roadways, but the advisory is intended to prevent unnecessary damage to local roads without implementing fines or other travel fees on commercial truck traffic.
Ruff says the reminder comes with a weekend warm-up anticipated in Northern Indiana. Roads may be most susceptible to damage during periods of extreme temperature changes.
“The only reason we wanted to address it … Friday and Saturday is supposed to be in the mid-50’s, 60’s,” says Ruff. “It’s going to start getting sloppy out.”
The County debated a frost law for some time in previous meetings in November.
The Pulaski County Commissioners approved issuing the letter unanimously. It can be found on the County Highway Department’s website.
