If only all the trees grew right next to the interstate.

AAA Carolinas, an organization that represents more than 1 million four-wheelers in North Carolina, plans to ask the state’s General Assembly to re-evaluate a series of laws that allow fully loaded trucks on state roadways, the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC, reported.

The organization said state-owned roads – many of which are used by the state’s large agriculture, mining and logging industries – move heavy traffic onto roadways that aren’t built to support the weight. The state roads allow loads up to 90,000 pounds – 10,000 pounds more than is allowed on the interstates.

In addition, AAA plans to fight a bill currently pending in the House Transportation Committee that would allow fully loaded construction trucks onto roads with lower weight limits, so long as they have a special permit.

“We’re no longer the good roads state,” Crosby told the News & Observer. “We’re not even average in the United States.”

The move comes after the state legislature shifted control of truck inspections to the state Highway Patrol in December 2002. A report in the News & Observer said the move, along with a series of laws passed during the past decade, lessens the number of inspections given and increases the amount of wear and tear on roads.

According to the report, the number of citations given for truck inspections have been cut in half in the past five years, and weigh-in-motion detectors in 16 locations found trucks running overweight at hours when the understaffed inspection force was least likely to be operating.