City Council passes measure restricting heavy truck traffic

While truck traffic is permissible along Washington Street in downtown Greencastle, that doesn’t make it any easier to navigate as big rigs try to pass each other at the Washington-Indiana street stoplight. A new city ordinance, however, restricts heavy truck traffic to certain streets, attempting to keep it off streets like Franklin and (parts of) Washington and Shadowlawn, as well as residential neighborhoods in general.

Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE

A new city ordinance, adopted at the July City Council meeting, is aimed at halting a keep-on-trucking presence by heavy trucks within residential areas.

Ordinance 2017-5, unanimously adopted on second reading by the City Council, repeals a section of city code that had offered a list of streets where heavy truck traffic was not allowed but in doing so, listed only eight city streets.

The new ordinance, as Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory noted in previous discussions, is designed to keep heavy truck traffic “out of residential areas like Shadowlawn and Washington Street.”

In fact, the ordinance says as much, noting “there have been numerous complaints of heavy truck traffic on Shadowlawn, Washington Street and Franklin Street.” In other words, heavy truck traffic has been utilizing city streets “that are not built for heavy weights and can cause deterioration of the street, be disruptive to traffic flow and result in excessive noise.”

After adoption, the ordinance will need to be published as a legal notice and then likely take effect 30 days later. Thus, it may be six weeks or more before city police officers can begin issuing $100 citations for each violation.

“My neighbors will be thrilled,” Second Ward Councilor Stacie Langdon said under passage on first reading in June.

In establishing truck routes, the ordinance limits truck traffic within city limits to the use of the following city streets (truck traffic is, of course, permissible on all U.S. and state highways within the city):

-- Calbert Way, from State Road 240 northeast to city limits.

-- Capital Drive, from State Road 240 south to city limits.

-- County Road 25 South, from Fillmore Road west to the end of the cul-de-sac.

-- County Road 275 East, south from the entrance to Crown Equipment Co.

-- Fillmore Road, from State Road 240 north to County Road 25 South.

-- Jackson Street, from Washington Street south to city limits.

-- Veterans Memorial Highway, from Jackson Street west to city limits.

-- Walnut Street, from Jackson Street west to city limits.

-- Warren Drive, from State Road 240 south to city limits.

Meanwhile, there are exemptions, of course. The ordinance notes that the restrictions listed above shall not apply to:

-- Trucks upon any street where travel is necessary to conduct business as a destination point, provided the truck travels on truck routes until reaching the intersection nearest the destination point.

-- Emergency vehicles and trucks owned or operated by the city, county, state or public utilities.

-- Any construction equipment while engaged in the repair, maintenance or construction of streets, street improvements, buildings, utilities or other construction projects within the city.

-- Local service vehicles, including school buses and refuse removal vehicles.

-- Any travel pursuant to an officially established detour.

-- Vehicles belonging to the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, DHL or other package delivery services as long as such vehicles do not have more than six wheels.

“I’d have to say,” Mayor Dory reported, “that the companies we’ve been working with have been very, very responsive.”

The mayor said the city has had to make a couple of reminders about keeping trucks out of residential areas “but as soon as those (notices) went out, they took action.”

“They live in these neighborhoods, too,” Dory added.