Title

"Cover Story" piece on road fees paid by truckers in the north woods. Moving wo

Authors

Phyllis Austin

Source

Maine Times

Date

2-21-2002

Pages

1, 8-11

Abstract

"Cover Story" piece on road fees paid by truckers in the north woods. Moving wood through the grid of industrial landowners in Maine's industrial forest involves traveling over roads built by other companies. A complex system of informal agreements and tolls once ensured even-handed distribution of the costs of building and maintaining the 30,000-mile all-weather network of private roads, which is one of the largest capital costs associated with timber management. But Plum Creek Timber has raised the fee it charges logging trucks by 10 times, to 50 cents per ton per mile, which can add up to $2,250 to the cost of a 100-mile trip for a truck carrying a 100,000-pound load. Some are concerned that the new emphasis on tolls may be the beginning of "monetizing" the road asset, much as companies have turned shorefront land into cash by selling houselots.

Subjects

Plum Creek Timber Company, Roads, Tolls

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