Peekskill Hollow Road to Get Weight Limit
Due to pressing safety concerns, Putnam County is set to enforce a weight restriction for a Putnam Valley roadway.
Putnam County Commissioner of Highway and Facility Fred Pena confirmed last week that he is enforcing a weight limit on Peekskill Hollow Road because residents have expressed safety issues with trucks using the residential road as a way to avoid congestion on other main roads in the county. The weight limit should begin in the next week or so, and will only apply to trucks that want to cut through the street and not local deliveries.
Pena said in an interview that he has the authority under county law to place a temporary restraint on certain roads in the county, in order to further examine the truck traffic in Putnam.
Pena said he wasn’t sure how long the restriction would last.
“I don’t think there is a fixed time frame,” Pena said. “I believe as long as we’re actively pursuing a solution to this problem we are on good grounds.”
Legislators on the Physical Service Committee welcomed the Pena’s willingness to place the restriction on the road.
District 1 legislator Barbara Scuccimarra said the weight restriction was necessary because Peekskill Hollow Road is heavily populated and older bridges also might not be able to handle the large capacity trucks driving on them.
“It’s really a problem to have these big trucks coming through,” Scuccimarra said. “It’s a safety issue.”
District 5 Legislator Carl Albano said residents have spoken up against trucks on the street for an extended period of time. He added the road probably wasn’t design to handle large trucks, but over the years commercial traffic used it as a bypass to avoid other busier roads.
While residents have previously asked for a weight limit, the law states one can only be put in place long term if there is a structural issue with the road, and not just an issue of safety or how narrow the road is.
And while the solution is not permanent, Albano said the restriction on Peekskill Hollow should lead to a larger scale study of truck routes within the county.
Albano said the committee is going to try to find the best routes for trucks to use going forward and “find a plan that works best for everyone.”
“Just to limit one road can’t be a fan of truckers unless you have other truck routes,” Albano said. “So that’s just another whole concept that came up that we’re going to look into more carefully.”
And Pena noted that this problem doesn’t just pertain to Putnam County, but an issue nationwide. He said there is a letter signed by dozens of US representatives that went to the US Department of Transportation requesting that the department examine what’s going on with truck traffic on local roads.
“We look at vehicle counts, origin destinations, how are vehicles maneuvering through the county and perhaps creating a truck routing system,” Pena said of what the county must do. “We have to look at all of those issues.”
