LEMON TWP.

Craig Keller’s agitation surfaced as he discussed regulations restricting heavy-truck traffic from his quarry to the nearby Nicholson Twp. Building.

“They are between four and five miles, if we go this way,” Mr. Keller said, pointing east and indicating a direct route on rural roads. “For us to get there legally, its over 30 miles, if we do what the state wants us to do.”

Mr. Keller’s business, Keller Crushing and Screening Co., a quarry and stone distributor located nine miles north of Tunkhannock, is among dozens of companies confronting the burden of stepped-up state enforcement of a 10-ton limit on hundreds of miles of secondary regional highways. His company’s six dump trucks weigh 14 tons without any cargo, and if his haulers follow state-sanctioned routes from his Wyoming County quarry to the Nicholson Twp. building, they would drive south on Route 29 into Tunkhannock, east on Route 6 to Factoryville and north on Route 11 to Nicholson.

“Truthfully, we’re running illegally,” Mr. Keller said, referring to travel on 10-ton-limit roads. “I don’t like it, but I have to stay in business.”

Companies hauling large loads to remote locations find themselves hemmed in, driving extra distances and forgoing direct, country-road routes to comply with weight restrictions putting more than 1,500 miles of roads off-limits for heavy truck traffic in northern Lackawanna, northern Luzerne, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. Violations can lead to substantial fines.

“We are running in areas where we don’t even belong because we can’t go on that 10-ton-limit road,” said Adam Diaz, a Kingsley businessman who runs a stone company, a lumber mill, gas-industry services and drilling-site disposal operations. “It’s more of a risk and more of a liability for me because I’m sending my trucks farther. There’s more chance of an accident, a breakdown, wear and tear.

“It’s a cost of business that we didn’t have two years ago.”

The state Department of Transportation last summer expanded the posting and enforcement of 10-ton limits on mostly four-digit secondary highways in southwestern and Northeast Pennsylvania after excessive damage from heavy vehicles associated with Marcellus Shale natural gas development. The state ordered gas companies to post bonds covering roads they use regularly to service drilling sites. The goal was to make companies financially responsible for repairing road damage from heavy truck traffic.

The bonds cost $12,500 per mile for paved roads and require companies entering a compact to assume responsibility for additional maintenance from truck damage.

When stricter regulations and enforcement started in August, posted-road mileage in Susquehanna County alone quintupled from 97 miles to more than 552 miles.

“We run all these roads. It’s our lifeline,” said David Keller, Craig’s brother and vice president of the family business.

“If you go from Tunkhannock to Montrose (on Route 29) in a dump truck, you can’t legally turn off that road, with the 10-ton limit,” Craig Keller said. “We supply a lot of rock for the road repairs, but we can’t use the roads to get there.”

PennDOT issues travel permits to regional companies, giving them technical clearance to use secondary roads for local deliveries. But a recently discontinued regional PennDOT notification about the permits process includes a warning: “State police do not recognize this as a legal document.”

“If you are a local business, there is an exemption built in,” said James May, spokesman for the PennDOT district office in Dunmore. “It really should not be a whole lot more inconvenient.”

Thirty state police enforcement teams monitor truck traffic statewide for violations, including regional units based in Dunmore, Blooming Grove and Towanda, said Lt. Ray Cook, director of the state police commercial vehicle safety division.

“We actively enforce violations of special hauling permits or, in many cases, trucks operating in excess of 10-ton limits without a permit,” Lt. Cook said. “When it comes to weight violations, the permit becomes completely invalid.”

In November, a truck owned by Kingsley-based Masters Concrete Products was stopped, inspected and issued a $15,000 citation for a weight violation, company President Richard W. Masters said.

The company fought the citation in magisterial court and the fine was dismissed, but the experience was alarming, Mr. Masters said.

“It’s hanging over our heads all the time. We’re holding our breath,” he said. “If we have to go around these roads, there’s no point in staying in business. We could not afford to do it.

“It’s ridiculous that we have to put up with this stuff,” he said.

PennDOT permits allow local companies to use posted roads for local deliveries, Lt. Cook said, but they do not excuse violations for weight or safety issues.

“We certainly don’t want to stymie the growth of the (gas) industry in the state, but at the same time, we want them to operate in accordance with the law,” he said.

State Rep. Sandra Major, R-111, Bridgewater Twp., has fielded a flood of complaints about the restrictions.

“It has a huge impact. Where they might take a shortcut using a four-digit road, now because they are posted, they can’t do that,” Ms. Major said. “The local folks who have been using these roads for generations are getting caught up in this issue.”

The restrictions not only add greater traveling distances, higher fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses, they deter commerce, Mr. Keller said.

His local business has declined by 50 percent over the last year, though increased work at gas-drilling sites has made up for the loss.

“A lot of our customers are afraid to come in here because of the 10-ton roads,” he said.

Because of travel restrictions and near-record diesel fuel prices that are up 33 percent from last June, businesses are increasing prices and fees to offset higher expenses.

Mr. Keller has boosted stone prices by 20 percent this year, but Mr. Diaz said higher charges barely offset his soaring operational costs.

“We are going to get nickeled and dimed so bad that eventually, you are not going to be able to pass it on,” he said.

Inspections can tie up trucks for hours, delaying deliveries and adding more expenses.

“We had one of our trucks stopped three times in one day – by the same officers,” Mr. Keller said.

“Some people have been pulled over for anywhere from an hour to three or four hours,” Ms. Major said. “There are costs. That’s a driver not getting a product to where it needs to be delivered.”

Gas-drilling companies can afford to bond highways they need to ensure their availability and supplies, but the prospect is beyond reach for most small businesses.

“How to do you take a 10-mile stretch and put up a $125,000 road bond and make your payroll?” Mr. Diaz asked. “They are making people run illegally, because they can’t afford this.”

Contact the writer: jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com