REGINA – Stretches of broken pavement that used to be Saskatchewan’s highways mark the need for changes in how business and government view the provincial blacktop.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and the province will soon be joining forces in a program to help preserve the remaining pavement. The Transportation Partnerships Program, introduced in 1994, has moved from its origins in the forestry industry to retail co-operatives and now to grain handling.
Les Bell, of the Saskatchewan highways department, says it and the pool are close to a deal to help protect secondary highways and allow the grain company to haul increased loads on secondary and municipal roads.
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At the heart of the deal is the ability to increase and decrease the amount of air pressure in the tires
of multi-axle, semi-tractor trailer units depending on the load carried, the speed traveled and road condition.
Truck traffic has increased on highways and municipal roads as grain elevators close and rail lines are abandoned across the Prairies.
Truck weights for B-train, nine-axle tractor-trailer units are limited to 54.5 tonnes gross weight on secondary highways. The agreement will allow for 62.5 tonne loads, the same as primary highways, provided a central tire inflation system is installed and operating on the truck. Truck speeds and driving practices also reduce the impact on the roads and will be part of the deal, say participants.
“We have fairly strict qualifications for drivers and vehicles when it comes to these arrangements,” said Bell.
Details of the agreement have not yet been released but in previous deals, the province and the company share the savings equally. No one would indicate a dollar value in savings for the pool or the province.
Trenton Baisley, of Sask Pool’s transportation division, said the plan would include a global positioning system on each truck the company equips with the tire inflation control system. In addition to complete information on the exact roads traveled, weight-measuring cells installed in the truck’s air bag suspension will provide loaded weights directly to the provincial highways department via satellite.
“The province and the municipalities will be able to share in the savings directly and we will be able to direct the funds we remit to the roads we use and to specific repairs,” said Baisley.
The pool plans to introduce the product to its trucks and carriers it contracts for grain hauling.
“Test results in this province have shown 22 percent savings in tire wear and four percent savings in fuel,” said Baisley. “That is a lot of money when it comes to working out the tonnes of grain moved by truck each year.”
Brian Spreen, president of Tire Pressure Control International, distributes the equipment under the trade name Redline-Eltek Tire Pressure Control Systems.
He said the technology has been around since the Second World War. Spreen said his company has made it easier to use and has improved computer controls so that impacts to road surfaces are minimized.
The centrally controlled tire pressure system requires improved air drying systems that remove excess moisture from compressed air and, in nine-axle systems, larger air compressor systems are needed to support the system.
