Authorities agree to regulate loaded vehicles

THE National Road Authority (NRA) and Road Traffic Authority (RTA) have signed an agreement to regulate the heavy loading of vehicles in order to prevent the rapid deterioration of the national highways and roads.
The signing of the memorandum of agreement (MoA) will allow the monitoring of the weight bridge at 10-Mile outside Lae, Morobe, to stop the overloading of vehicles that use the Ramu Highway (Lae-Madang), Highlands (Lae-Highlands) and the Lae-Wau-Bulolo Highway.
Transport Minister William Samb said yesterday during the signing that under the agreement, NRA and RTA would enforce fines from K200 up to K1,000 for vehicles that did not comply with the weight requirements.
“The purpose of this MoA is also to stop overloading and improper loading of vehicles.”
Samb said the NRA had purchased the weight bridge in 2009 through a budgetary appropriation and it needed to be used to monitor the loads vehicles were carrying.
“The highest allowable load on the road in PNG is 42 tonnes and many of the older bridges as well as the road structure in the country have been designed to carry up to 33 tonnes,” he said.
“Bridge and road designs were revised to have a 44-tonne loading in the late 1990s.
“Research shows that a 100 percent overloaded truck has a potential to damage the road.
“Once we have a deteriorating road, it affects the whole supply chain and poor road condition would mean higher operational costs for the movement of goods which means increased prices of goods and services.
“Research also shows that overloaded and improperly loaded vehicles contribute to road crashes.”
Samb said RTA and NRA would undertake awareness and establish the load situation along the Highlands, Ramu and Lae-Wau-Bulolo highways.