Suffolk News-Herald

Residents can voice their thoughts on the city’s proposal to expand the &uot;no through truck&uot; zone on Nansemond Parkway to several surrounding roads at this week’s Suffolk City Council meeting.

The council, which meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, is holding a public hearing on the proposal to enlarge the zone to include Bennetts Pasture, Shoulders Hill and Knotts Neck roads.

If approved by council and the Commonwealth Transportation Board, the proposal would only allow trucks heading to businesses within that network of roads to travel in the newly created zone.

Expanding the zone is meant to help clear up confusion enforcing the &uot;no through truck&uot; ban on Nansemond Parkway, said Eric Nielsen, the city’s public works director. That ban is intended to deal with the growing number of truckers using the narrow, two-lane road to bypass the scales on U.S. Route 58.

City leaders stepped up efforts to restrict truck traffic in September after a high school student was seriously injured in a car accident on Nansemond Parkway.

Strict enforcement of the ban – which restricts through truck traffic between Chesapeake and Wilroy Road – inadvertently had a negative impact on businesses without frontage on Nansemond Parkway, Nielsen said.

If enforced as written, trucks using Nansemond Parkway to reach businesses on adjacent roadways would be ticketed, he said.