AUGUSTA, Me. -- A federal pilot project that would enable Maine to allow 100,000-pound, six-axle single-trailers on state highways drew both cheers and jeers last week.

The one-year pilot was included 2010 Transportation-HUD Appropriations Bill by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

The Coalition for Transportation Productivity, an advocacy group of more than 100 shippers and associations, including the American Trucking Associations, sent a letter to Sen. Collins, praising her for the move.

Regional trucking groups like the plan primarily because it allows northeastern carriers to compete with long combination vehicles (LCVs) currently being tested in the Canadian Maritimes.

"Sen. Collins recognizes the fact that allowing heavier, more efficient trucks on our nation's interstates will improve highway safety and reduce fuel use and emissions," said CTP Executive Director John Runyan. "This program will make roads safer by consolidating freight on fewer trucks and by taking heavy trucks off rural roads that often wind through towns, passing schools and driveways, and putting them on better-engineered, divided, multi-lane interstate highways."

"U.S. manufacturers are also forced to rely on expensive freight consolidation because our major trading partners have higher truck weight limits," added Runyan, "but Sen. Collins' provision would help Northeastern producers compete for market share and efficiently export goods to Canada." 

At the same time, a coalition of anti-truck groups and safety advocates sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate saying the exemption "is only a pretext for permanently raising the weight limit to 100,000 pounds on Maine's I-95 interstate and in other states, making that highway even more treacherous."

Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), notorious for cherry-picking highway truck-related facts, was joined by Parents Against Tired Truckers, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and other groups in calling for an end to such plans. 

They argue that bigger trucks lead to more highway deaths, injuries, and road and bridge damage.

The groups also used the bridge collapse catastrophe in Minnesota to argue that the same could happen in Maine if heavier trucks were permitted.

"This special interest provision was quietly inserted into this federal legislation without any public input and without any public hearings," said Joan Claybrook, chair of CRASH, who was most recently president of another anti-truck special interest group, Public Citizen.