NORWALK, Ohio — On the highways that weave together this country, it’s right up there with a flat tire or a traffic backup: A closed rest area.
For truck drivers, the headache can be even worse, as many News 5 spoke with struggle to find safe places to park at the end of their shift.
"There are fewer places available; some places that did allow parking in the past are shutting down," driver John McClure told News 5. "It gets pretty anxious sometimes."
Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine signed off on Ohio’s $13.5 billion transportation budget, which includes an amendment requiring that closed or under renovation rest areas keep their parking lots open for truck drivers looking for a place to park.
"This was a previous amendment, but we want to continue this practice because there are still a lot of those closed rest areas and we want to make sure that there's proper parking," said State Senator Nathan Manning, who added the amendment. "We want to give them time to be able to update these facilities, but at the same time, we certainly want that parking available.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a truck driver can only be on the road for eleven hours, with an additional three hours for breaks. The more miles those drivers can safely log in those 11 hours, the more money they make. It's an incentive to stay as close as possible to the highway, which can present parking challenges.
"When that time runs out, we want as many places nearby, safe places for them to park it as possible," State Sen. Manning added.
Chris Smith at Norwalk-based Ploger Transportation helped push for the amendment.
Smith recalled how rest areas quickly fill up with trucks at the end of the day and some drivers find themselves and their tired eyes struggling to find a place to safely park.
He told News 5 that can lead to limited options, or sometimes worse, like parking in the breakdown lane or off-ramp of the highway.
"There’s a lot of issues with the trucking industry right now and parking overnight is a really big one," he explained. "[This amendment will] keep the supply chain and the transportation and logistics going and store shelves stocked."
That amendment is just one effort to help improve this trucking problem.
The Ohio Department of Transportation is currently waiting to see if the federal government will award it a grant that would help identify 10 new truck parking locations.
On top of that, ODOT is in the process of converting permanently closed weigh stations into parking lots for trucks.
They’ve already completed five across the state including along I-76 in Medina County, I-71 in Ashland County, State Route 7 in Jefferson County and I-77 in Tuscarawas County.
Work is scheduled to start soon at three other locations: US 23 in Ross County, I-71 in Clinton County and I-75 in Wood County.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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