By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

Blame a wet, spring-like winter for the early weight restrictions popping up along Maine roads this month.

“It’s not uncommon for us to post a few roads, you know, in January,” said Brian Burne, highway maintenance engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation. “But to have to do it now, for as long as we’ve been doing it, is unique.”

Weight limits have been posted on hundreds of state roads across Maine. That includes about 20 rural roads northeast of Lewiston-Auburn. Trucks weighing more than 23,000 pounds – lightly loaded box trucks, for example – need to find alternate routes.

Selectmen in Wales have followed suit. They announced they’ll close all roads to trucks weighing more than 23,000 pounds beginning Feb. 15.

“We’re not trying to put contractors or anyone out of business,” said Selectman Randall Greenwood. “We’re just trying to preserve as much of our roads as we can.”

Weight limit postings on Auburn roads should begin on schedule in March, according to Sid Hazelton, assistant public works director.

“So far, it hasn’t been bad,” he said. “Of course, if we notice the roads are starting to take a pounding, we’ll do something.”

The roads will remain closed until later in the spring when they dry out.

The problem comes from wet soil, usually from melting snow and spring rains that soak the soil and make the road base weaker. With no support from the soil, the asphalt in the road begins to break down.

It’s not a problem unless temperatures begin to rise.

“A frozen road has as much support as anything,” he said. “But there’s a time, when the temperatures start coming up, but before the roads have drained, that you really have to worry about damage.”

Weight postings for most state roads usually begin in late February or March. The state began posting some roads late in December, Burne said.

“This winter has really been a bear, in a lot of ways, because of the rain and the melting snow,” he said.

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