Local loggers protest in Duluth

“We’re really nervous about going through there — we just don’t like it,” Lindberg explained about the scene of houses, elementary school, and kids playing on the sidewalk he routinely passes. “If it was the only route then we’d live with it, but it’s not. There’s an interstate (Interstate Highway 35) right there — that’s where we should be with our big heavy trucks.” 

More than 50 logging trucks, most loaded with timber from across northern Minnesota, including Lindberg’s truck and some from Boise, caravaned through Duluth last week in protest of the weight restrictions. Loggers also came from Lake of the Woods, Bemidji, Ely, Grand Marais, and the Barnum and Moose Lake areas.

Banners on their trucks read, “Safety first,” and “Let us on the freeway for safety.” 

“The primary benefit of allowing these trucks to use federal interstates is safety,” Lindberg, who has hauled logs for more than 20 years, said. “For me, the biggest thing is: we’re family men — we don’t want to be put in this situation when there’s a better, safer highway that we can use instead of where people live, and where that school is. We shouldn’t be going by that.”

He illustrates his trips through residential Duluth on a regular basis to trucks rolling through the center of International Falls if there was no truck route, Highway 332.

“It’s like all the trucks that use Highway 332 coming into Highway 11, past the mall, turning right on 11th Street, passing by Falls High School and going across town to Highway 53 to get to the Boise scale,” he said.

A few years ago, truck weight limits were always 80,000 pounds. A new rule allowing trucks to have six axles instead of five increased the allowed weight to 90,000 on state roads. A federal amendment by Chip Cravaack to the 2012 transportation reauthorization base bill that would have allowed three 25-mile interstate stretches in Minnesota to carry heavier trucks was stripped from the final highway bill. One of those stretches would have been from up north to Duluth.

“Make no mistake, if everyone is pulling in the same direction, we can get this done,” Cravaack said at the rally, according to a media release.

Opponents to the change argue that heavier trucks on freeways are not safe, and that they damage freeway infrastructure faster. However, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, large loads spread out over six axles can actually reduce wear and tear on roads.

Lindberg said of the residential streets of Duluth where the loggers are routed, “Why would they make a truck route for us on roads that weren’t designed to handle heavy loads?”

He added there’s a huge need for logging trucks to carry 90,000 pounds — it means less trucks and less fuel.

Recent changes in Maine and Vermont allow truckers there to carry 90,000 on freeways, Lindberg noted.

“They’re in the same shape as we are — the urban sprawl has built up around these paper mills,” he said. “These paper mills have been in existence like ours in the Falls for more than 100 years, and schools and suburbs have grown around them.”

Lindberg said he got many thumbs-ups from people passing by the Duluth protest, and “was so proud.”

“They understand the industry — and (because of the weight limit) the overall state of the industry suffers,” he said. “A lot of people live off the resources here we have in the logging industry —  it’s just a way of life for us.”

But he emphasized the issue is less about the monetary affect and more about safety.

“Accidents happen. When cars collide with our trucks, we lose big time — there are fatalities and injuries,” Lindberg said. “We’re just concerned about the kids in that area.”

 He added that although the protest has passed, the work to get legislation passed will continue.

“It’s not over,” Lindberg said. “We’re not done.”