Lawrence city commissioners Tuesday night unanimously agreed to make changes to the city's truck route policy that should make it easier for farmers to bring their grain to market.
Commissioners followed the recommendation of the city's Traffic Safety Commission and approved an ordinance that will allow truck drivers more options for making deliveries in Lawrence.
The ordinance allows any truck driver who has a route either ending or starting in Lawrence to use designated delivery routes. Those streets generally are secondary roads in Lawrence such as Haskell, Wakarusa, Kasold and numbered streets such as 31st, 19th, 15th, 11th and Eighth streets.
The city's current policy forces many truck drivers in Lawrence to remain on state highways for as long as possible when making deliveries. Truck drivers said the policy, which has been more vigorously enforced recently, would add significant numbers of trucks to 23rd Street, which is Kansas Highway 10.
The new ordinance will apply to all trucks, but had been lobbied for by area farmers who were concerned about how they would efficiently get their crops to the main Lawrence grain elevator near 19th and Haskell streets.
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SettingTheRecordStraight (anonymous) says…
A finished South Lawrence Trafficway will ease the burden.
merrill (anonymous) says…
The SLT would not help this situation one bit. The SLT would require more time and gas for this group of people to get their work done. The SLT is an obsolete plan, a tax dollar hog and will ruin a flood water control that will cost millions upon millions to replace. In general the SLT obsolete plan is a fiscal and environmental disaster across the board. How in the world can a 30 year old design be relevant today? In essence there was no dramatic road route change. This is what these truck people have been doing for about the last 10 years or so.
pace (anonymous) says…
Any body think the farmers will prefer to take the SLT route to the elevators? Doesn't go. It was a fake ordinance to force the SLT through the wetlands, so fake it might of resulted in body count. Glad the commission backed partially down. The city never cared when East Lawrence asked for help with the trucks barreling down Pennsylvania. They said it was our problem, to flag the trucks down and tell them to go slower. The Ever Vigilant B action.
SettingTheRecordStraight (anonymous) says…
"How in the world can a 30 year old design be relevant today?"Just look at I-70. Or I-80. Or I-90.