CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County Circuit Court judge overturned Morgantown’s ban on heavy truck traffic, calling the measure unenforceable Tuesday.
Nuzum Trucking Co., of Shinnston, and Preston Contractors Inc., of Kingwood, filed suit against the city of Morgantown and the state Division of Highways challenging the city’s jurisdiction to regulate traffic on a state road.
The Morgantown City Council passed an ordinance in August 2014 banning trucks exceeding 26,000 pounds gross weight with three or more axles from going through the downtown business district. It was scheduled to be implemented on Dec. 1, 2014.
Council members delayed enforcement, at the request of attorneys representing the trucking companies, until Tuesday’s hearing, where Circuit Court Judge Joanna Tabit needed less than an hour to declare Morgantown lacked jurisdiction to implement the ban.
“We appreciate her listening to the facts,” said Ed Boyle, secretary at Preston Contractors Inc., who attended the hearing. “At the end of the day, we were pleased with the decision. It was something we felt, at least on our side, that facts in the case would play and ultimately, with all due respect to the city, they did not have the jurisdiction to enforce this truck ban.”
City leaders had approved the measure to limit traffic on State Route 7 through downtown.
The DOH had been silent on the issue since the ban was approved by council, but legal counsel for the highway agency previously told WV MetroNews that it opposed the ban and felt state code did not give local governments the authority to regulate state-owned roads.
The restriction would have had a detrimental financial impact on trucking companies, Boyle said.
“It would have been a rather large economic impact to Preston Contractors, Nuzum Trucking and all the other trucking companies in the area that would not have been able to utilize state routes.”