Indiana highway officials are launching a pilot project to track unpermitted overweight vehicles that can damage highways and bridges.
The Indiana Department of Transportation will install license plate-tracking technology along Interstate 94 in northern Indiana’s LaPorte County this year to track overnight vehicles.
INDOT spokesman Scott Manning says a camera system will work in tandem with one of about a dozen “weight-in-motion” sensors embedded in the asphalt.
If that works, the technology could be installed along other Indiana highways.
The Journal & Courier reports (http://on.jconline.com/1VsPoFm ) INDOT’s tracking effort comes after an overweight semi-trailer damaged Interstate 65’s southbound Wildcat Creek bridge near Lafayette last summer.
That bridge was damaged a month before construction work along I-65 caused the northbound Wildcat Creek bridge to sink several inches, prompting a monthlong emergency closure.