Boston gets 45-day extension of truck ban

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Boston today received a 45-day extension of a daytime ban on trucks carrying hazardous materials through the city, a restriction that the federal government had lifted on Monday after city officials repeatedly failed to justify the ban as required by law.

Thomas J. Tinlin, Boston’s transportation commissioner, said he was skeptical that the extension will give the city enough time to complete a safety analysis of its truck ban as required by the federal government. He said the city had asked the government for a nine-month extension.

"But we’re going to take this 45 days for no other reason than to maintain a safer environment in the city," Tinlin said.

Senator John F. Kerry and US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who helped push for the extension, said the federal government had never before granted a grace period for any city.

"We appreciate this unprecedented action to help Boston," Kerry and Capuano said in a joint statement released by their offices.

The extension means hazardous materials trucks driving through the city will only be allowed to cut through Boston between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m, a restriction the city first put in place in 2006. They must also continue taking, at least for now, a route along the Greenway, instead of using Commercial Street in the North End.

Trucking industry officials blasted the extension today, saying Boston's ban on hazardous trucks cutting through the city in the daytime would force truckers to waste fuel and time driving out of the way. Industry officials also pointed out that city officials have had four years to formally make their case for the ban and have so far failed to do so.

"It’s disingenuous for Boston to ask for a 45-day extension when they’ve had more than four years to comply with the federal requirements," said Richard Moskowitz, vice president of the American Trucking Association.

City officials have argued that the federal government’s lifting of the ban on Monday had jeapordized public safety by putting hazardous and flammable materials such as gasoline, propane and oxygen in closer proximity to residents and drivers inching along congested streets during rush hour.