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To use your own example, they're designed to handle a certain quantity of 18 wheelers but they're not designed to handle traffic that is entirely composed of 18
by ThrowawayR2 6y ago
To use your own example, they're designed to handle a certain quantity of 18 wheelers but they're not designed to handle traffic that is entirely composed of 18 wheelers.
Raising the average vehicle weight from 1.5 to 3 tons will definitely have an effect.
- selectodude 6y agoBut not as much as it would seem, since road damage is a quadratic function of weight and one truck does as much damage as 9600 1 ton cars. Doubling the weight of the car would maybe narrow that by a few percentage points, but vehicle miles for any personal vehicle at essentially any weight is a rounding error compared to one truck.
- Retric 6y agoBridges at least need to be designed for just 18 wheelers because over 50 years that’s going to happen at least once.