DUNMORE, Pa. -- With an 8 p.m. ban now in place, certain vehicles are now restricted from entering the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Clarks Summit. That includes tractor trailers with empty trailers or double trailers and RVs.
PennDOT also has the same restrictions on most interstates in northeastern Pennsylvania with monitors keeping a close eye on traffic inside PennDOT's operations center in Dunmore.
PennDOT spokesperson James May says they have multiple ways of alerting trucking companies about the ban.
“This is the room here, our traffic management center, that is really the focus of attempts to get the word out to the trucking companies and to the public," said May. “So we have our message boards that go up. We have our 511PA system, Twitter, Facebook, anything that we can do. We send emails out.”
At a rest area off Interstate 380 in Gouldsboro, truck drivers we spoke with said they already knew about the ban.
“I get it a lot by Facebook and the stuff my boss tells me. A lot of it is word of mouth,” said truck driver Clay Taninies.
“Seen it on the signs coming up here,” said truck driver Alex Eckman. “Coming up 81 from Harrisburg.”
The last time this ban was issued was earlier this month. Newswatch 16 found troopers pulling restricted trucks off the interstate, clearly frustrated with drivers not heeding to the ban.
Eckman says when he gets the call about the restrictions, his company makes sure all crews comply.
“For us, it's easy. They pull us. We're local, so when we see the stuff, our dispatchers notify us, and they pull everyone off the road,” said Eckman. “Yup, tell us to go home. We'll drop our loads for the day and head back to the yard.”