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I-4 weigh station project to wrap up next month

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

A D.O.T. worker gets familiar with a new weigh station on I-4 near McIntosh Road. The new facility allows trucks to drive through at higher speeds without stopping unless needed for closer inspection.

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By DAVE NICHOLSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2009

PLANT CITY - The buildings are gone, but there's still work to do at former truck weigh stations on Interstate 4 west of Thonotosassa Road.

The remaining work includes removing old scales, laying sod on the site and placing a new sign for the Thonotosassa Road exit, said John McShaffrey, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation project. The contractor is expected to wrap it up at the end of July.

Weigh stations first opened in the Plant City area in the 1960s, but they had static scales, and truckers had to stop while their rigs were weighed before they merged back into traffic.

The state decided to replace them with modern scales that weigh trucks while they are in motion. At the new stations that opened this year on I-4 between Mango and McIntosh roads, trucks travel through at about 45 mph and keep going unless they are flagged for being overweight or officials want to inspect them.

The state is spending $36 million to build the new stations and demolish the old ones.

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