0524
Dec 14, 01, 4:24 pm
Local officials are worried that trucks using Vermont as a shortcut are filling highways along the Champlain Valley as far south as Rutland.
They’re asking Vermont’s congressional delegation for help.
In a letter to the delegates, members of the Rutland Region Transportation Council described their concerns that increased international trade was making state roads attractive to truckers.
They blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1994, and heightened security since the terrorist attacks for creating a bottleneck at the Interstate 87 border crossing in New York.
Some truckers are trying to save time by en-tering Vermont at the Highgate crossing and heading south along Route 7, they wrote.
“They are willing to trade off the advantages of Interstate 87 for a time savings estimated at anywhere from six to 16 hours per round trip for transiting Vermont,” wrote Richard Baker, the council’s chairman.
http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/RutlandCounty/Story/39158.html
They’re asking Vermont’s congressional delegation for help.
In a letter to the delegates, members of the Rutland Region Transportation Council described their concerns that increased international trade was making state roads attractive to truckers.
They blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1994, and heightened security since the terrorist attacks for creating a bottleneck at the Interstate 87 border crossing in New York.
Some truckers are trying to save time by en-tering Vermont at the Highgate crossing and heading south along Route 7, they wrote.
“They are willing to trade off the advantages of Interstate 87 for a time savings estimated at anywhere from six to 16 hours per round trip for transiting Vermont,” wrote Richard Baker, the council’s chairman.
http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/RutlandCounty/Story/39158.html