Franklin Township supervisors are planning to enact an ordinance that restricts large trucks from driving on select streets within the township.

Supervisors plan to adopt the ordinance to make it unlawful for trucks over 21,000 pounds to travel on Indian Hill Road between Long Run Road and Fairyland Road and on Overlook Drive between Indian Hill Road and Fairyland Road at the Dec. 21 meeting. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m.Any emergency vehicles or trucks making local deliveries or pickups are exempt from the ordinance.Any person violating the ordinance will be guilty of a summary offense and upon conviction will be fined $75.A tractor cab alone weighs anywhere from 16,000 to 20,000 lbs., but an empty trailer adds several tons more. A 65-foot long empty system (truck and trailer) weights over 30,000 lbs.An average car weighs about 4,000 lbs.Robin Cressley, township roadmaster, said that he suggested the ordinance be passed to keep larger trucks off township roads so they don't break up the shoulders."It makes for unsafe conditions," said Cressley.Cressley noted that triaxle dump trucks could weigh as much as 70,000 pounds when loaded, while tractor trailers could weigh as much as 80,000 lbs. fully loaded."When the trucks make the turns on Overlook Drive, they have to cross over the highway to turn, which causes an unsafe condition."Cressley said that the ordinance will force truck drivers to use state roads which are better able to handle the heavier trucks.