The situation is a weighty one in Illinois .

Residents in several Chicago suburbs are complaining that increased tolls are driving trucks off the interstates and onto state highways there, and city officials claim that overweight trucks are causing damage to the roads.

As a solution, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, along with several suburbs in Lake County, north of Chicago, are using mobile scales to crack down on overweight trucks on the interstates and on the nearby state highways.

The Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, reported the authority plans to purchase four mobile scales that will be used to patrol Interstate 94 in Lake County and Interstate 90 in Kane and Cook counties.

The Herald reported that several northern-Chicago suburbs are also using mobile scales, though it did not say which suburbs are using the scales.

The northern suburbs have complained about increased traffic on state Route 41 in Lake County as well as state Routes 45, 62 and 83, according to The Herald. State Routes 41, 45 and 83 run parallel to I-94, while state Route 62 runs parallel to I-90.

According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the maximum gross vehicle weight allowed for a five-axle truck is 80,000 pounds, though some local roads have restrictions tighter than that.

None of the roads listed above has any additional restrictions in the counties in question, according to Rand McNally’s “2005 Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas.”

Truckers continue to contend the crackdown is to pressure big truck traffic to get off those highways and go back to the pricey toll roads.