Hazmat truck ban extended in Boston

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 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, adding that he was not sure when precisely the extension would take effect.

The decision means trucks hauling hazardous materials through the city will be allowed to cut through Boston only between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m., a restriction the city first put in place in 2006. The trucks must also continue taking a route along the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway to get to Interstate 93, instead of using Commercial Street in the North End, which they had begun taking Monday.

North End residents and elect ed officials, who were outraged that loads of hazardous materials would be rolling through one of the neighborhood’s main thoroughfares, said the extension would give them a respite.

“It’s a start,’’ said Harry L. Seviour, who has lived on Commercial Street for 12 years.

“It means that someone is listening. The area is just too congested for hauling dangerous materials through here.’’

But trucking industry officials condemned the decision to grant the extension, saying Boston’s daytime ban on hazardous materials trucks cutting through the city would force haulers to waste fuel and time driving out of the way. Industry officials also said city officials have had four years to make their case for the ban formally and have 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.

Anne Lynch, executive director of the Massachusetts Motor Transportation Association, said the extension, awarded so soon after the ban was lifted, will make it “very confusing for truckers.’’

“Confusion is very unsafe in the world of transportation,’’ she 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.

Tinlin said federal officials made it clear in a telephone call yesterday that they would not grant another extension after this 45-day period is over.

But Tinlin said he would request another extension nonetheless, arguing that Boston has been trying hard to complete the safety analysis of its ban.

City officials have argued that the federal government’s lifting of the ban jeopardized public safety by putting hazardous materials in closer proximity to residents and drivers inching along crowded streets.

“We still contend that trucks full of hazardous materials, which are not picking up or dropping off in the city of Boston, have no reason to cut through city,’’ Tinlin said.