Feds Lifting Boston’s Hazmat Restrictions

Trucks carrying hazardous materials will be allowed to pass through Boston’s streets starting next week, after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration lifted the city’s restrictions on hazmat movement, the Boston Globe reported Thursday.

FMCSA issued its decision after warning the city in November that it had six months to complete a safety analysis of the ban or see it voided, the paper reported in a front-page story. Boston failed to meet that deadline and the feds then rejected its request for a nine-month extension.

FMCSA ruled n November that Boston’s efforts to stop trucks from carrying hazardous materials through the city during certain hours was illegal. (Click here for previous story.)

The decision outraged city leaders, who contend it will jeopardize public safety, but trucking industry officials said the decision will not put the public at risk and said the ban was lifted because the city failed to make a case for its restrictions, the Globe reported.

Rich Moskowitz, regulatory affairs counsel for American Trucking Associations, told the Globe the decision could boost public safety by reducing miles traveled.

The decision allows trucks carrying hazardous materials will no longer be banned from traveling through the city between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and will change allowable routes, the Globe said.

Hazmat trucks now must take the Charlestown Bridge, Cross Street, and the Greenway to Interstate 93, but beginning Monday the route will shift, forcing them onto Commercial Street in the city’s North End, the Globe said.

The restrictions date back to 2006, when Boson instituted rules under pressure from House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a Commercial Street resident, and his North End neighbors, the Globe reported.