Although the legislative process has taken longer than expected, it is nearing completion. Transportation Committees in both the Senate and Assembly have now released bills authorizing the ban, sponsored by Senators Schluter and Turner and Assemblymembers Lance and Reed respectively. DiFrancesco, as Senate President, has promised a floor vote on the bill as early as next week and expects no opposition in either house.

While support of the ban is also widespread among community leaders in Mercer and Hunterdon Counties, its immanent approval is bittersweet for many. The current ban restricts trucks heavier than 26,000 pounds from Route 29 only between its intersection with I-95 north of Trenton and the road's northern terminus at Route 12 in Frenchtown, a narrow and windy 22-mile stretch that has seen numerous high-profile crashes involving trucks.

Trenton area legislators and community leaders had called for a truck ban along Route 29 within the city years ago as an alternative to the NJ DOT plan to turn the road into a four-lane limited access highway, ostensibly to accommodate truck traffic (MTR #179). Construction of the highway, that an earlier ban would have made unnecessary, now stalls traffic and blocks what was the last accessible piece of downtown waterfront (MTR #218).

The Route 29 ban is independent of the statewide ban of 102-inch wide trucks from most state and local roads. A Federal Court decision on a case brought against that restriction by the American Trucking Association is expected in March (MTR #299).