For nearly three years since the state of Rhode Island has imposed weight restrictions on the Pawtucket Bridge, drivers continue to cross the overpass, which garners an $85 ticket for ignoring the sign and a $3,000 fine for the company that owns the trucks. With the bridge expected to be complete by 2013, these problems won’t go away any time soon, even despite carriers’ best efforts to make their drivers aware of the detours and consequences. Some say the detour signs can be confusing, and though the state DOT has taken steps to make them clearer, drivers in violation of the less than 18,000 pounds and/or having more than two axles restriction continue to cross it.

Since November of 2007, when the State of Rhode Island imposed weight restrictions and later axle limits on the aging Pawtucket Bridge, which carries I-95, state troopers have issued almost $7 million in bridge-related citations and fines to truck drivers and to the companies for whom they work. Drivers are ticketed $85 for failure to comply with posted bridge detour signs. Fines of $3,000 are also levied against the fleets that own those trucks for violating the 2008 law which imposed the current two-axle limit.

Things are not going to get better soon, either. Bridge replacement is not expected to be fully complete until June of 2013, although all traffic is expected to be crossing over new bridge structures by May of 2012.

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