"Drivers do not respect tonnage limits": in Lot, before the bridge, trucks are weighed

Empowering truck drivers and demonstrating the consequences of an overweight truck on the bridge. This summer, the Lot department is experimenting with a heavy goods vehicle weighing system on the Cajarc bridge, which crosses the Lot River to the neighboring department of Aveyron.

Thanks to sensors in the roadway on either side of the embankment, a light panel indicates whether the heavy goods vehicle is overweight or not, and records this weighing and the truck's passage on video. This device is already in use on motorways but is being tested by the county council after numerous incidents in recent years.

"We have more suspension bridges than other French departments bombed during the Second World War, but some drivers don't respect the tonnage limits," emphasizes Serge Rigal, president of the Occitan department. "This puts other users at risk and weakens the structure of these bridges . In 2022, a driver damaged the Touzac bridge with a weight exceeding 20 tons. This led to two and a half years of closure and €3.5 million of work."

On average, 650 vehicles cross the river each day on the Cajarc bridge, including 16 heavy goods vehicles. A 2020 study counted 30 overweight trucks in one month, or one per day, on this structure, which is limited to 20 tonnes. With this weighing system, which cost the two departments €300,000 in investment, the local authorities hope that driver behavior will change. The experiment is expected to last several years.