The signs are impossible to miss, flashing electronic billboards warning: weight limit 20 tons.
The Longfellow Bridge, in such bad shape, one side is closed to pedestrians, and the T is required to creep by at just ten miles an hour. Last month, state and federal officials also prohibited big rigs 20 tons and heavier as just too risky.
Commissioner Rick Sullivan, Department of Conservation and Recreation"Its obviously a concern that we have to be able to insure the public safety ."
But we aimed our surveillance camera, mounted on top of a Cambridge building, right at the Longfellow. We rolled hours of tape as the trucks rolled by.
This one. This one. This one. This one. This one. Big rigs headed Boston to Cambridge, Cambridge to Boston, again and again.
They're huge, they're obviously heavy, but are they breaking the 20 ton weight limit?
Hank Phillippi Ryan "So here comes truck number 1…"
We our video to showed truck safety experts.
John Boucher, New England Tractor Training School"That could be up to fifty tons…"
and they had no doubt–these tractor trailers are highly questionable.
Hank Phillippi Ryan"Are these trucks too heavy? Could the be too heavy?"
John Boucher, New England Tractor Training School "Absolutely."
So while the state spends millions on a massive repair job, who's watching for overweight big rigs making the bridge worse? Our investigation found basically? No one.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation owns the crumbling and rusted out bridge and sets the weight limits. But the state police are supposed to enforce them.
Commissioner Rick Sullivan, Department of Conservation and Recreation "The state police is out there every single day."
The state police does have a top notch truck team, they check cargos and use special scales, and they've handed out thousands of tickets when too-heavy trucks travel state highways. But State Police officials told us:
"The state police truck team does not go to the Longfellow Bridge on any regular basis, if ever."
Police officials insisted there's a detail trooper working the bridge every rush hour, though they admitted the officer is not trained to analyze trucks and has no scales. But when we checked over several days and at several times, we only saw a trooper once.
We showed photos of the trucks to the DCR commissioner
Hank Phillippi Ryan "Does it concern you? This one and this one and this one. And now changes are in the works. And what will these pictures prompt you to do?"
Commissioner Rick Sullivan, Department of Conservation and Recreation "I will follow back and have another conversation with the State Police."
Hank Phillippi Ryan "Because?"
Commissioner Rick Sullivan, Department of Conservation and Recreation "Because again my expectation is that nothing over 20 tons is going over that bridge."
Top DCR officials now tell us the state police are "looking into the matter" of bridge staffing. And in fact, the day after our interview, we saw two state police officers posted on the bridge.(Copyright (c) 2008 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)