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Demolition Ahead For Plant City's I-4 Truck Weigh Stations

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By DAVE NICHOLSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2008

PLANT CITY - The days are numbered for truck weigh stations on Interstate 4 west of Thonotosassa Road.

High-tech weigh stations are nearing completion on I-4 between Mango and McIntosh roads. Shortly after those open in early January, the ones in Plant City will be demolished.

There will be about a three-month testing period of the new stations, project spokesman John McShaffrey said.

Work on the stations is substantially ahead of the projected 2010 completion date, he said. The $36 million stations are being built by John Carlo Inc.

There have been weigh stations in the Plant City area since the 1960s, but they have static scales, where truckers must stop while their rigs are weighed before they have to get back up to speed and merge into traffic.

The state Department of Transportation decided to replace them with modern scales that can weigh trucks while they are in motion. The trucks will travel through the new stations at about 45 mph and keep going unless they are flagged for being overweight or officials want to inspect them.

The new stations will have a barn so inspectors can look over trucks out of the elements and plenty of space for tired truckers to park their rigs if they want to rest, McShaffrey said.

The state needed to move the scales to a new site because there wasn't enough land at the current location.

"It's really a totally different system," he said.

The sites of the Plant City weigh stations will be grassed over after demolition, he said. The merge lanes around the weigh stations will remain, he added.

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