THUNDER BAY — One point seven million liters of diesel fuel. That’s some big carbon footprint.*

It’s also an extremely conservative estimate of how much more diesel fuel trucks will consume every year if Thunder Bay’s City Council goes through with plans to ban 15.2-meter (53-ft) trucks from one of the area’s main thoroughfares.

The stretch of highway in question is Dawson Road, a popular short cut for trucks traveling between The Lakehead and The West.

Dawson runs northwest out of Thunder Bay and cuts 26 km off a trip. It had been a provincial roadway until 1998 at which time it was designated City property. Ever since, various residents have made attempts to have big trucks banned.

Most recently, Council was presented with an 1,500-name anti-truck petition, championed by the local councilor Trevor Giertuga, and on Monday of this week, Council passed the resolution unanimously and now the City staff must draft a bylaw. (Giertuga has not yet returned todaystrucking.com’s numerous phone and/or email requests for an interview on the matter.)

The bylaw’s success depends on a technicality regarding signage and, the fact is, the glitch might be insurmountable.

Currently, the westernmost and eastern ends of Dawson Road change into provincial highways. Truckers in both direction should be advised, via signage well in advance of the restriction, that there’s a 53-ft ban on Dawson.

Otherwise unsuspecting truck drivers will arrive at Dawson and be forced to change their plans mid-trip. At the west end of Dawson, unless there’s a change to the layout of the road and a roundabout built, a trucker will be required to do a three-point and head west more than 20 kms back to highway 17 and then loop south along 17 to continue the route east.

Whether the Province of Ontario will agree to the signage is still a matter of speculation. Todaystrucking.com has requested clarification of the matter from the MTO.

(As recently as December, 2011, and in an effort to make the creation of truck routes more efficient and effective, the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) released a comprehensive Guide to Establishing Local Truck Routes. Aimed at communities determined to assign truck route status to various roads, the Guide is like a Truck-Route Torah, and a common theme: Signage. Give drivers plenty of warning. The issue is huge.)

Staff estimates it could take months to figure out how to get around the glitch. So for your Pete’s sake, don’t re-route your trucks yet.

Other issues remain unresolved.

For one, several carriers are located directly on Dawson, most prominently QuikX and the locally owned Biloski Bros., a severe-duty gravel hauler with flatbeds and even ice road equipment.

The proposed bylaw includes exceptions for local traffic, so Biloski as well as QuikX equipment can get to and from their yards. (But as one observer pointed out, Canada’s largest trucking fleet, TransForce Inc., recently purchased QuikX. So does that mean all of TransForce’s 7,000 or so trucks get to use Dawson? What would the competition think?)

The upshot of the ban will yield the usual body tally. More costly trips. More congestion on other arteries. Safety hazards at intersections on alternate routes. A bigger carbon footprint for Thunder Bay. And lastly, more stories on the issue on todaystrucking.com. Stay tuned.

* Estimate is made based on trucks averaging 6 mph and about 500 trucks running each day six days of the week 52 weeks of the year. Of course that estimate doesn’t include mechanical wear and tear, time or driver’s wages. The costs soar into the millions.